The WBO Welterweight title  fight at Cowboys Stadium was suppose to be a real challenge: Manny Pacquiao against Joshua Clottey, a bigger, taller, stronger opponent, right?

But Pacquiao showed how easy it is to win a  fight when your opponent shows up but strategically decides not to fight back.

You simply throw more punches–like 830 more. 

It doesn’t matter if the punches don’t all land cleanly, or even knock out your opponent. There’s simply no way you can lose a fight if you outpunch your foe so convincingly that he seems cocooned for most of the fight.

In this 12-rounder, Clottey landed just 108 of 399 punches. That’s like a mild workout. Was his heart not in it? Or was he scared of Pacquiao who landed nearly 3 times more punches (296) out of a mindblowing 1,231 punches.

For every one Clottey punch, Pacquiao threw 3 more, often in a furious combination.

Clottey’s strategy appeared to be a modified “rope-a-dope,” a ropeless rope-a-dope, standing in the center of the ring, gloves and arms covering up body and face. If the intent was to let the Filipino punch himself out so that Clottey could emerge from his bunker-like state to knock out a tired Pacquiao, well that was just a uniquely dopey idea.  Call it the “Clottey.”  It didn’t work.

It did prevent Pacquiao from knocking out Clottey like he did Miguel Cotto or Ricky Hatton, both of whom went after Pacquiao aggressively and opened themselves up to Pacquiao’s tricky left hooks. But even as Clottey covered up, Pacquiao simply sidestepped and pounded away, scoring at will with body shots to Clottey’s ribs.  Clottey occasionally caught Pacquiao with an uppercut that caught  the champion’s chin,  but nothing Clottey did could stop Pacquiao from answering with a four or five punch combination.

I thought after seeing Clottey bloody Miguel Cotto last year that this would be a good compromise for fight fans who still hope to see Pacquiao take on Floyd Mayweather.

But Pacquiao is just too fast, too good, and too well conditioned. And now there’s really no one left to fight.

Pacquiao doesn’t need the money nor the challenge. And he doesn’t need the drama of more Mayweather fight negotiations.

Seems like a good time to retire, especially when you’re on top of the world.

Besides, Pacquiao’s already announced a challenge far greater than Floyd Mayweather– politics.

If Jim Bunning can be a U.S. Senator, why can’t Manny go to the Philippine legislature?  The election is in May, and if Pacquiao wins, it could be the first step for the People’s Champ in helping to restore Filipinos’ faith in their corrupt, dysfunctionalgovernment. (Even more corrupt and dysfunctional than the one we have in Washington, D.C.)

I like the politics idea more than Manny singing karaoke or doing hokey super hero movies in the Philippines. Pacquiao is the embodiment of “People Power.”  He’s no oligarch. He’s  a real self-made Filipino man, who rose from politics to be the most popular Filipino in the world since Imelda Marcos and Cory Aquino.

The question is whether he has the brain power to be more than a figurehead leader. He’ll have a fighting chance to prove his sincerity and passion to help the Philippines if he quits now. 

After 56 fights, enough’s enough. Now he needs to save himself for the real main event of his life.