“If I win next month,” said Manny Pacquiao at the “Blaze of Glory” post-fight press conference, referring to his run at Filipino politics, “I will still continue to fight.

“My boxing career is my business, and my income.”

With that said, Pacquiao closed his time at the podium, which had been opened with five minutes of thank-yous, to tend to a horde of fans and media people, apparently bent on obtaining a Pacquiao autograph rather than hamper the super featherweight king with questions on his eighth round stoppage over previously unbeaten Jorge Solis.

Could be, there were no questions worth asking, for, the fight, attended by 14,793 at the Alamodome—rated second only to Chavez-Whittaker for San Antonio boxing crowds—was not much of a surprise.

What was a surprise was one of Solis’ responses to his knockout loss at the hands of powerful puncher.

“To tell you the truth,” he told the media, “My wife hits harder than Manny Pacquiao.”

Despite what many considered an asinine statement, the formerly undefeated Mexican gave Pacquiao his due, and apologized for losing.

“I want to apologize,” he said. “I came here to give you a great fight. I think it was there . . . I came close, but I just got caught with a punch.

“I did my best and gave everything, but lost to a great champion. He’s very fast … and comes right at you, with a lot of pressure. He was relentless and that’s what happened. Next time, I’ll do better . . . .”

A next time is not likely for Solis, at least not against Pacquiao, but should it happen, if his wife is anywhere around 130, he might consider having her sub for him.

As for who’s up next for Pacman, Top Rank boss Bob Arum threw out the name of “Joan Guzman,” though “Barrera” and “Marquez” still came up.

“If they want to make real money, they got to fight Manny Pacquiao,” said Arum. “The best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.”

No free replay

It may be, the days of watching a free replay of a pay-per-view telecast may be over—at least for Top Rank.

Boxing fans who didn’t want to shell out PPV bucks, hoping to catch the HBO replay next weekend can forget it—if you want to see Pacquiao-Solis, along with the other televised features of “Blaze of Glory,” you’re going to have to do it the hard way.

Surprises, galore

While the Pacquiao and Chavez, Jr. fights were less than shocking, the world title fights with Arce-Mijares and Viloria-Sosa were the talk of the night.

“Everyone who came tonight got a big surprise,” said Cristian Mijares, who retained his WBC super flyweight belt by giving favored-to-win Jorge Arce a boxing less through 12 toe-to-toe and bloody rounds.

“I just won a fight I’ve been dreaming of my whole life,” said Mijares. “I’ve always been a great fan of Jorge Arce. But, unfortunately, I had to fight him tonight . . Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.”

Arce gave no excuses.

“I’m very disappointed,” he admitted. “As you saw, he beat me, every which way. I’m not going to take anything from him. It’s a great win for him.

“But all the great champs have to learn to fall sometime. They get up and do it again. That’s going to be me.”

Arce asked for a rematch and Mijares, equally respectful to Arce, said he would be happy to give him one.

Edgar Sosa, who pulled off an upset majority decision over Brian Viloria, for the vacant WBC light flyweight belt, had little to say but that he’d “told everyone I was gonna come and take the belt back to Mexico.

“And that’s what I did.”

Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr., who took out Anthony Shuler with a second round stoppage, merely told the media that he was “ready for bigger and better things.”