MANILA, Philippines -- He could be a fighting congressman.

This was the suggestion of a Manny Pacquiao fanatic, among some 2,000 people who crowded the Rasac covered court along Rizal Avenue, in Barangay 334, Zone 33, in Sta. Cruz, Manila to watch the boxing icon’s bout with Ghanian Joshua Clottey.

Samuel Ragus, 36, maintenance personnel of the Out-of-school-Youth Towards Economic Recovery (OYSTER) project, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that he would not want Pacquiao to retire after his fight with Clottey.

“He can still fight. He is really my idol and boxing would not be as fun without him,” Ragus said, adding, “There’s always a zero-crime rate whenever he fights. He cannot retire yet.”

“It is still possible for him to fight even if he becomes a congressman, isn’t it?” Ragus pointed out.

According to Cholo Flameno, 53, Pacquiao still has four to five fights left in him before he retires, saying, “He is still young. Pacquiao is tough.”

“He should not go into politics anymore. He should just concentrate on boxing. There are a lot of other ways how he can help. I don’t think it’s through politics,” Flameno told the Inquirer.

The Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta (PBA, Force of the Heroic Athlete) party list, a group endorsed by Pacquiao, distributed fans to the Rasac covered court crowd. The only political posters strewn around the court were those of the party list group.

While normally, the fans would have been ignored, the predominantly male crowd sought out the campaign paraphernalia to relieve themselves from the suffocating heat inside the stadium.