Manny Pacquiao’s career lies in the balance after his unexpected loss to Yordenis Ugas over the weekend.

The Cuban surprisingly defeated the 42-year-old via unanimous decision to retain his WBA (Super) welterweight title. This was Pacquiao's eighth defeat of his career.

He was entering the ring for the first time since July 2019 in a fight billed "The Legend vs the Olympian".

However, PacMan didn't seem as quick and dominant as he once used to be and ended up losing to Ugas who wasn't supposed to be his opponent in the first place.

Pacquiao was initially supposed to fight Errol Spence Jr. before the latter was forced to pull out due to an eye injury.

Speaking after the fight, the 42-year-old hinted that this could be the last bout of his career. As quoted by Metro, Pacquiao said:

"In the future, you might not see Manny Pacquiao again to fight in the ring. I don’t know. But for how many decades, I’m so happy with what I’ve done in boxing.

"I contributed a record and brought boxing to the top, and especially, brought honour to my country, the Filipino people."

Pacquiao also added that his legs were cramping and that prevented him from being more mobile.

"I’m not saying this is my excuse, but my two legs were cramping," said the 42-year-old. 

"That’s why I could not move around. In the early days (of my career), I could easily move and outbox him. But this time around, it was like my two legs were tight and hurting me in the second round until the 12th round.

"But I’m not making excuses. I tried to counter his punches. That’s boxing. I have done a lot in boxing and I’m happy I’m safe."

There's a fair chance that this may have been the final fight of Pacquiao's illustrious career that saw him become the only eight-division world champion.

As for Ugas, this is his fourth successive victory and his record now stands at 27-4.