Manny Pacquiao's return to the boxing ring on Sunday morning was electrifying, but the victory over Brandon Ríos here did not provide all the answers.  In his first win in two years, the Filipino superstar showed he still has most of the speed, skill and intelligence that saw him dazzle the boxing world and win world titles in eight weight classes.  If there were any lingering effects from his surprise knockout defeat by Juan Manuel Márquez last year, they were not drastic enough to save Ríos, who received a terrible beating on his way to a unanimous decision loss. "He was quick, he was way quicker than I expected," Ríos admitted after the fight. "The quickness just threw me off guard."  Such was Pacquiao's dominance that one judge failed to find a single round to score for Ríos, while the other two gave him just three between them. The American was simply too slow and too crude for Pacquiao, who consistently nailed him with combinations to the body and head before stepping off at angles. His southpaw straight-left snapped Ríos's head back again and again, and the California fighter had no answers in either attack or defence.  "Pacquiao came in with a great game plan and I think taking the whole year off like he did helped him a lot," said Rios's trainer, Robert Garcia. "He recovered well and I'm sure he trained like never before because he had a lot to prove and a lot to show, and he did. I'm sure everybody had the question 'what Pacquiao are we going to see?' and I think we all saw the best Pacquiao."  Picking apart the capable Ríos would have been a hugely impressive feat for any other fighter, but the best Pacquiao, the Pacquiao of 2009, would have stopped him.  "Bam Bam" was chosen as a comeback opponent by the promoter Bob Arum because his come-forward style was tailor-made for the Filipino. Even still, it took "Pacman" a few rounds to warm up and he found himself in clinches and with his back to the ropes more than he has in the past. It has now been four years since Pacquiao, once a KO artist, won a bout by knockout.  In the 12th round he backed Rios into a corner and hurt him with a combination, but instead of going in for the kill he stepped back and touched gloves with his opponent.  After the fight, Pacquiao explained in broken English that he felt he did not see the need to hurt Ríos any more: "In that last round, in the corner, I don't want to get careless so I back up a little bit and give him a chance to finish. You know, I'm not doing that because I'm tired or anything, I'm doing that because boxing isn't about killing each other, boxing is about entertaining people."  The Filipino congressman did not save all his compassion for Ríos, and dedicated the win to the victims of Typhoon Haiyan. "For all of the people affected by the typhoon this fight is for you," he said to huge cheers from the mainly Filipino crowd at the Cotai Arena.  Pressed on who he would fight next, Pacquiao opted for his standard line: "It is up to my promoter". Arum, for his part, did not want to discuss Pacquiao's next opponent but conceded that the shortlist includes Márquez, Timothy Bradley and Russia's Ruslan Provodnikov, who was ringside.  Provodnikov, who fights in a similar style to Ríos, shares the trainer Freddie Roach with Pacquiao. "Ruslan and him are pretty good friends," said Roach earlier in the week, "but I put myself in Ruslan's shoes; if he's offered $10m (£6.16m) to fight Manny Pacquiao, could I really say no?"  But Márquez is Roach's preferred option. "Márquez talks so much shit, I really want to shut him up," he said. "He's so satisfied; he doesn't want to give us a rematch. We gave him three rematches. I think he owes us one." The 40-year-old veteran also brings a huge Mexican television audience, but feels he is entitled to a bigger piece of the promotional pie after last year's win.  If Márquez prices himself out, there is always California's Bradley, who is also promoted by Top Rank and is coming off an upset win over Márquez. Given the hugely controversial nature of his 2012 split-decision victory over Pacquiao, a rematch would highly marketable.  But with an impressive comeback performance, it was inevitable that the name Floyd Mayweather would come up at the post-fight press conference. Pacquiao, Roach and Arum all said they wanted to make the fight, but those sentiments have been expressed before. Arum's Top Rank Promotions just do not do business with Mayweather or his de facto promoter, Golden Boy. Though Pacquiao has enrolled for the random drug testing that was once the biggest sticking point in negotiations, the fight is as far away as it ever was.  It is a pity too. Even a somewhat diminished Pacquiao would be the biggest challenge Mayweather has faced in years.
Alex McClintock: Manny Pacquiao made an electrifying return to the ring with one of his best performances to date