Manny Pacquiao

Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao (pronounced /ˈpækjaʊ/, /pa'kjaw/ in Cebuano and Tagalog; born December 17, 1978), more commonly known as Manny Pacquiao, is a Filipino professional boxer. He is the former WBC lightweight world champion, WBC super featherweight world champion, IBF super bantamweight world champion, and WBC flyweight world champion.

He is currently the WBO welterweight champion, IBO and Ring Magazine light welterweight champion, and is rated by Ring Magazine as the #1 pound-for-pound boxer in the world. He has also held the Ring Magazine titles for featherweight and super featherweight divisions.

The Filipino boxing superstar is the first boxer to win seven world titles in seven different weight divisions. In addition, he is the first boxer to win the lineal championship in four different weight classes. Aside from being a boxer, Pacquiao has participated in politics, acting, filmmaking, and music recording.

Personal life
Pacquiao was born in Kibawe, Bukidnon, Mindanao and currently resides in his home town General Santos City, South Cotabato, Philippines. He is married to Jinkee Pacquiao and they have four children. Pacquiao received only an elementary school education. Recently, he took a high school equivalency exam, which he passed.

Boxing career

Early career

Pacquiao started his professional boxing career at the age of 16 at 106 lbs (Light Flyweight). His early fights took place in small local venues and were shown on Vintage Sports' Blow by Blow, an evening boxing show. His professional debut was a 4-round bout against Edmund "Enting" Ignacio on January 22, 1995, which Pacquiao won via decision, becoming an instant star of the program. Close friend Mark Penaflorida's death in 1994 spurred the young Pacquiao to pursue a professional boxing career.

His weight increased from 106 to 113 lbs before losing in his 12th bout against Rustico Torrecampo via a third-round knockout (KO). Pacquiao had not made the weight. So he was forced to use heavier gloves than Torrecampo, thereby putting Pacquiao at a disadvantage.

Shortly after the Torrecampo fight, Pacquiao settled at 112 lbs, winning the WBC Flyweight title over Chatchai Sasakul in the eighth round only to lose it in his second defense against Medgoen Singsurat, also known as Medgoen 3K Battery, via a third-round knockout on a bout held at Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand. Technically, Pacquiao lost the belt at the scales as he surpassed the weight limit of 112 lbs (51 kg).

Following his loss to Singsurat, Pacquiao gained weight anew. This time, Pacquiao went to the Super Bantamweight division of 122 lbs (55 kg), where he picked up the WBC International Super Bantamweight title. He defended the title five times before his chance for a world title fight came.

Pacquiao's big break came on June 23, 2001, against IBF Super Bantamweight champion Lehlohonolo Ledwaba. Pacquiao stepped into the fight as a late replacement and won the fight by technical knockout to become the IBF Super Bantamweight champion on a bout held at MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada. He defended this title five times and fought to a sixth-round draw against Agapito Sánchez in a bout that was stopped early after Pacquiao received 2 headbutts.

1st fight with Barrera
Pacquiao went on to defend his title four times with expert training from Freddie Roach at the Wild Card Gym, improving his hand speed and mental preparation before the match that many consider to have defined his career, a bout against Marco Antonio Barrera. Pacquiao, moving up in weight and in his first fight ever in the Featherweight division, brought his power with him and defeated Barrera via a TKO in the 11th round at the Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas. Although this fight was not recognized as a title fight by any sanctioning bodies, Pacquiao was recognized as world champion by Ring Magazine after his victory, and he held that title until relinquishing it in 2005.

1st fight with Márquez
Only six months after Pacquiao's win over Mexican legend Barrera, Pacquiao went on to challenge another highly respected Mexican boxer in Juan Manuel Márquez, who at the time held both the World Boxing Association (WBA) and International Boxing Federation (IBF) Featherweight titles. The fight took place at the MGM Grand Las Vegas, on May 8, 2004, and it ended in a controversial draw that left both sets of fans feeling bitter.

In the first round Márquez was caught cold, as he was knocked down three times by a more lively Pacquiao. However, Márquez showed great heart to recover from the early knockdowns, and went on to win the majority of rounds thereafter. This was largely due to Márquez's counterpunch style, which he managed to effectively utilize against the aggressive style of Pacquiao. At the end of a very close fight, the final scores were 115-110 for Márquez, 115-110 for Pacquiao, and 113-113. One of the judges (who scored the bought 113-113) later admitted to making an error on the scorecards, because he had scored the first round as "10-7" in favor of Pacquiao instead of the standard "10-6" for a three-knockdown round. Consequently, both parties felt they had done enough to win the fight.

1st fight with Morales
Pacquiao once again moved up another division from 126 to 130 lbs to fight another Mexican legend, three-time division champion Érik Morales on March 19, 2005, at the MGM Grand Las Vegas. However, this time around, at his first fight in the Super Featherweight division, Pacquiao lost the 12-round match by a unanimous decision from the judges.

WBC International Super Featherweight title
On September 10, 2005, Manny Pacquiao fought Héctor Velázquez at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. He knocked Velázquez out in 6 rounds to capture the WBC International Super Featherweight title. On the same day, his rival, Erik Morales, fought against Zahir Raheem. However, Morales fought a lackluster performance, losing to Raheem via unanimous decision.

2nd bout with Morales
The much-anticipated rematch between Pacquiao and Morales happened on January 21, 2006 at Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. In that fight, Morales escaped being knocked down twice, one during the 2nd round by holding on to the ropes and the other on the 6th round by falling on the referee's body. Pacquiao eventually knocked Morales out in the 10th round, dealing him the first knockout loss in his boxing career.

Oscar Larios
On July 2, 2006, Pacquiao defeated Óscar Larios, a two-time Super Bantamweight champion who had moved up two weight divisions in order to face Pacquiao. Despite his camp's big promise of an early knockout, the fight went until the final round, with Pacquiao knocking down Larios two times during the 12-round bout for the WBC International Super Featherweight title held at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, Philippines.

Final bout with Morales

Pacquiao fighting Érik Morales in their third match.Pacquiao and Morales fought for a third time (with the series tied 1-all) on November 18, 2006. Witnessed by a near-record crowd of 18,276, the match saw Pacquiao defeating Morales via a third-round knockout at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

After the Pacquiao-Morales rematch, Bob Arum, Pacquiao's main promoter, announced that Manny returned his signing bonus check back to Golden Boy Promotions, signaling intentions to stay with Top Rank. This resulted in GBP's decision to sue Pacquiao over contractual breaches.

At the end of 2006, he was named by both HBO and Ring Magazine as the "Fighter of the Year", with HBO also naming him as the most exciting fighter of the year.

Jorge Solis
After a failed promotional negotiation with Marco Antonio Barrera's camp, Bob Arum chose Jorge Solís as Pacquiao's next opponent among several fighters that Arum offered him to fight as a replacement. The bout was held in San Antonio, Texas on April 14, 2007. In the sixth round of the bout, an accidental headbutt occurred, giving Pacquiao a cut under his left eyebrow. The fight ended in the eighth round when Pacquiao knocked Solis down twice; with Solis barely beating the count after the second knockdown, the referee (who was also a doctor) was prompted to stop the fight. The victory raised Pacquiao's win-loss-draw record to 44-3-2, with 34 knockouts.

Second bout with Barrera
On June 29, 2007, it was announced that Top Rank and GBP agreed to settle their lawsuit, meaning the long-awaited rematch with Marco Antonio Barrera will occur despite being the #1 contender for the Super Featherweight title of Juan Manuel Márquez.

Since Bob Arum was out on a vacation, GBP's chief executive Richard Schaefer politely declined to discuss Pacquiao’s purse from the October 6, 2007 rematch with Marco Antonio Barrera (at the Mandalay Bay Resort Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas). However, Pacquiao was likely to get a purse of $5 million, plus possibly a share of the pay-per-view rights. Pacquiao defeated Barrera in their rematch via an easy unanimous decision. In the 11th round, Pacquiao's punch caused a deep cut under Barrera's right eye. Barrera retaliated with an illegal punch on the break that dazed Pacquiao but also caused the referee to deduct a point from Barrera. Two judges scored the bout 118-109, whereas the third scored it 115-112.

Other events
In The Ring Magazine, Pacquiao (45-3-2) remained at the top of the Junior Lightweight division (130 lbs). He had been in the ratings for 108 weeks. Pacquiao was also at No. 2 in the pound-for-pound category behind former Welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr.

On November 13, 2007, he was honored by the WBC as Champ Emeritus during its 45th Annual World Convention held at the Manila Hotel.

On November 20, 2007, José Nuñez, manager of WBO Super Featherweight champion Joan Guzmán, accused Pacquiao's handler Bob Arum of evading a match between the two boxers to protect Pacquiao. Guzmán went as far as to directly call out Pacquiao at the postfight press conference of the Pacquiao-Barrera rematch in front of a stunned crowd at the Mandalay Bay Events Center's media room in Las Vegas.

The 240-member House of Representatives of the Philippines, on August 7, 2008, issued a Resolution, sponsored by South Cotabato Rep. Darlene Antonino-Custodio, which recognized Pacquiao as “a people’s champ” - “for his achievements and in appreciation of the honor and inspiration he has been bringing ... to the Filipino people.” He received a plaque from Speaker Prospero Nograles.

On July, 2008, it was announced that Pacquiao would be the flag bearer of the Philippines at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He became the first Filipino Olympic non-participant to be Team Philippines’ flag-bearer during the August 8 opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics at the Beijing National Stadium. Swimmer Miguel Molina, 2005 Southeast Asian Games’ Best Male Athlete, yielded the honor to Pacquiao, upon Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's request to national sports officials on the Philippines at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Rematch with Márquez
On March 15, 2008, in a rematch against Juan Manuel Márquez called "Unfinished Business", Pacquiao won via a disputed split decision in a close, hard fought battle in which Pacquiao knocked Márquez down in round 3. Pacquiao won the WBC and The Ring Super Featherweight belts, making him the first Filipino to win three world titles in three different weight divisions (Pacquiao was a former WBC Flyweight champion and former IBF Super Bantamweight champion).

During the postfight interview, Márquez’s camp called for an immediate rematch. Richard Schaefer, GBP CEO, offered a $6-million guarantee to Pacquiao for a rematch. Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum, still stinging from the less-than-stellar revenue from Kelly Pavlik’s immediate rematch with Jermain Taylor, said the fight will probably happen but only after there is time to “put a little air under it.” Pacquiao, for his part, said "I don't think so, this business is over" because he planned to move to lightweight (135 lbs) to challenge David Díaz, the reigning WBC Lightweight champion at that time. Díaz won the majority decision over Ramón Montano that night as an undercard of the "Unfinished Business" fight.

WBC Lightweight title
On June 28, 2008, at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Pacquiao defeated David Díaz via ninth-round knockout to become the WBC Lightweight champion. With the victory, Pacquiao became the only Filipino and Asian boxer to win four major titles in four weight classes and also became the first Filipino fighter to ever win a world title at Lightweight. The fight ended at 2:23 of the ninth round and was viewed by 8,362 spectators. Bob Arum announced that Pacquiao is most likely to fight November 15 versus 130-lb Venezuelan champion Edwin Valero or Humberto Soto in Planet Hollywood, and he also mentioned the name of WBA, WBO, and IBF Lightweight champion Nate Campbell. "I can fight in November," Pacquiao stated, "Who I fight is the job of my promoter (Bob Arum)." Díaz had his best payday, $850,000, and Pacquiao earned at least $3 million.

Bob Arum reported that the Pacquiao-David Díaz fight which made $ 12.5-M (250,000 pay-per-view subscriptions at $ 49.95 each), paled in comparison to the 400,000 in the Márquez showdown. The sales reached over $20 million. Pacquiao’s 3 classic fights with Érik Morales earned a combined sales of 1 million pay-per-view hits. After HBO and Top Rank get their share, Pacquiao and Díaz will get theirs based on the contract, that is, in addition to the $ 3 million contract pay. Official records revealed an attendance of only 8,362 tickets of the seating capacity of 12,000.

Meanwhile, WBC president Don José Sulaimán clarified that Pacquiao is not a 5-division but 4-division world champion, because the November 2003 Barrera fight was a non-title bout.

Holding both the WBC Super Featherweight and Lightweight titles following the win, Pacquiao decided to vacate his Super Featherweight title in July 2008 in order to defend his Lightweight crown.

Pacquiao vs. De La Hoya
On December 6, 2008, Pacquiao faced Oscar De La Hoya at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, in a fight called Dream Match. Pacquiao asserted himself over De La Hoya from the first round till the eighth round. De La Hoya's corner threw in the towel before the start of the 9th round. Pacquiao won via technical knockout.

Presented by Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank, Inc., the bout was scheduled as a 12-round, non-title fight contested at the 147-pound Welterweight limit. Although Pacquiao went into the fight widely recognized as the leading pound-for-pound boxer in the world, some boxing pundits had speculated that 147 pounds could be too far above his natural weight against the larger De La Hoya.

Pacquiao received $15 to 30 million (share of the pay-per-view), plus a guaranteed amount.

Tickets reportedly sold out just hours after they went on sale. The total gate revenues were said to be nearly $17 million dollars. That amount apparently gave the bout the second largest gate revenue in boxing history.

Pacquiao vs. Hatton
On May 2, 2009, Pacquiao fought Ricky Hatton for the IBO and Ring Magazine Light Welterweight titles at MGM Grand Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The fight was originally placed in jeopardy due to disputes with both camps over the fight purse money. Eventually, the money issue was settled and the fight went on as scheduled. HBO aired the contest.

Pacquiao started the fight strong, knocking down a sluggish Hatton twice in the first round. At the bell, Hatton seemed to have re-grouped, only to get knocked down for the third time 2:59 into the second round, awarding Pacquiao the win by KO.

Pacquiao vs. Cotto
On November 14, Pacquiao defeated former WBO welterweight champion Miguel Ángel Cotto of Puerto Rico by TKO in the 12th round, at the MGM Grand Las Vegas. Even before Ricky Hatton's fight against Paulie Malignaggi last year, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum stated his desire for Pacquiao to fight Cotto. Pacquiao then gave Arum the go signal to arrange the fight after Cotto won a hard-fought decision against Joshua Clottey at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Meanwhile, current WBA welterweight champion "Sugar" Shane Mosley tried to lure Pacquiao to fight him. Mosley even offered Pacquiao for a fight at junior welterweight (140 pounds), Pacquiao's weight class as of the moment. However, after unsuccessful attempts, Mosley shifted his focus to a fight against WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto.

Among the details that were agreed upon for the Pacquiao-Cotto fight were the weight (both camps agreed to the 145 pound catchweight) and the purse (Pacquiao will get the 65% share of PPV buys, as compared to Cotto's 35% share). In addition, the fight would be for the WBO Welterweight title.

Pacquiao solidly defeated Cotto to become the new WBO welterweight champion, his seventh title in seven weight classes. After winning the first round and arguably the fifth, Cotto appeared to tire progressively while Pacquiao maintained his speed and power, dropping Cotto in the third. At the end of the 11th round, Cotto's own father sought to stop the fight. Cotto and his trainer, however, wanted to continue, and the HBO announcers speculated it was so Cotto could have the honor of finishing. A minute into the 12th round, however, it was clear that Cotto could not throw any more decent punches, prompting the referee to stop things.

On the 12th round of the match, referee Kenny Bayless stopped the match, awarding the match to Pacquiao by TKO due to his nearly uninterrupted domination of Cotto after the first round. With this victory, Pacquiao took the WBO welterweight title, his seventh world championship and became the first boxer in history to win seven world titles in seven different weight divisions.

Political career
Pacquiao has said he will enter politics after he ends his boxing career. He quietly visited the Philippine Commission on Elections, escorted by Arnold "Ali" Atienza (son of then-Manila Mayor Lito Atienza), to transfer his residence from General Santos City to Manila. This fueled speculations that he may seek an elective post in the nation's capital, which even gave him the title "Adopted Son" after he won his earlier bouts.

His name was once mentioned as a possible vice-mayoralty candidate to the younger Atienza when the latter sought the city's highest post in the 2007 elections, but this did not pan out after Sen. Panfilo Lacson, then the leading candidate for Manila mayor, backed out for contentions regarding Lacson's residency issues (in which Pacquiao also had such issues).

Being known as an Arroyo supporter, his name is also being floated as a candidate of the Lakas-CMD party for the mayoralty race of General Santos City against incumbent Mayor Pedro Acharon. Instead, he was recently sworn-in as a member of the Liberal Party under the Atienza wing, thus further fueling his political ambition.

On February 12, 2007, the famed boxer announced that he was running for congress representing South Cotabato. His decision however easily turned off both his fans and the general public. Election experts stressed that as Pacquiao insists on participating in his next professional boxing match, he will immerse himself into a legal conflict regarding campaign exposure, especially since the match will be televised nationwide. Aside from that, COMELEC commissioner Benjamin Abalos mentioned a possible legal entanglement could ruin Pacquiao's candidacy because he already registered himself as a Manila resident months before.

Numerous sports personalities and analysts around the Philippines expressed that Pacquiao should think seriously and deeply about his sports career, which could potentially be destroyed by the dirty world of politics. On February 24, 2007, in Cebu City, Pacquiao was booed by thousands of spectators as his presence was acknowledged by the organizers of The Battle of Cebu, a WBO-sanctioned boxing festival. The embarrassment later led to confusing statements made by then-Manila Mayor Lito Atienza that the famed fighter would withdraw. The negative sentiment among Cebuanos over Pacquiao's political aspiration was felt even before the "The Battle of Cebu" was held because at least one citizen's comment got published by local newspaper Sun Star.

In relation to the Pacquiao's April 14 fight with Jorge Solis, the political opposition stated that they would not press for a ban on the broadcasting of the match despite its potential to violate election campaign rules. Although he won over Solis, Pacquiao's appeal diminished most likely due to his political ambition. His last fight attracted noticeably smaller audiences, and his performance was considered by many as disappointing. Some election candidates even turned the Pacquiao-Solis match into campaign gigs. Over at General Santos City, Diocese of Marbel spokesman Fr. Angel Buenavides considered President Arroyo's endorsement of Pacquiao as a "curse" because constituents in the area have strong anti-Arroyo sentiments.

On May 17, 2007, Pacquiao suffered a lopsided election defeat to incumbent representative Darlene Antonino-Custodio, with a deficit of approximately 37,000 votes according to the NAMFREL tally. Meanwhile, WBC head José Sulaimán stated that Pacquiao "doesn’t appear to be having the same dynamic impact at the ballot box, as he does in the ringed square." The defeat became a depressing matter for the boxer himself because he lost a huge sum of money when his supporters allegedly funneled campaign funds to their own pockets. Pacquiao's personal money was part of the campaign budget. Ironically, Pacquiao's fans rejoiced over his defeat. Some even declared his loss as a "victory" for boxing. On May 20, 2007, Manny Pacquiao formally conceded to congresswoman Antonino-Custodio, vowing to return to boxing and spend more time with his family.

In August 2007, Pacquiao filed a P30-million libel suit against four journalists of the Manila Bulletin due to an article which stated that he "is reported to be a compulsive gambler and is known to bet hundreds of thousand in casinos, cockfighting, and billiards." The case was later dismissed via "affidavit of desistance", and Pacquiao stated that pursuing the case would only cause inconvenience to him and his family.

On September 1, 2008, Pacquiao was sworn by Secretary Ronaldo Puno, as member of Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi). Pacquiao officially announced that he is retiring in August 2009, and will be running again in the Philippine general election, 2010.

In popular culture
A film based on Pacquiao's life, Pacquiao: The Movie, was released on June 21, 2006, featuring Filipino actor Jericho Rosales as Manny Pacquiao and was directed by Joel Lamangan. The film flopped at the box office, grossing a total of only P4,812,191 (approximately US$99,322), as confirmed by Lamangan. In 2008, Pacquiao starred with Ara Mina and Valerie Concepcion in his latest action movie titled "Anak ng Kumander". The movie was not a commercial success and was panned by critics.

Pacquiao is featured in the boxing video games Fight Night Round 2, Fight Night Round 3 and Fight Night Round 4. EA Sports released a limited edition demo of Fight Night Round 4, featuring Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton prior to their May 2 fight.

He became the first Filipino athlete to appear on a postage stamp.

With his popularity, various business sectors have solicited Manny Pacquiao's help in endorsing their products through commercial advertisements in print and in broadcast media. These include detergents, medicines, foods, garments, telecommunications, and even a political ad for Chavit Singson during the May 14, 2007 elections. His most acclaimed commercials yet were for Nike's "Fast Forward" campaign (along side Kobe Bryant, Maria Sharapova, Roger Federer, Cristiano Ronaldo and Liu Xiang) and for San Miguel Beer with Jet Li and Érik Morales.

On April 12, 2007, the COMELEC canceled his commercial appearances in accordance with existing Philippine election laws. Airing of the commercials resumed after the elections.

Upon the expiration of his contract with ABS-CBN, he signed up with GMA Network as an actor on September 2007. On December 17, 2007, after finishing a movie, Pacquiao went to the GMA Network to tape his first episode of Pinoy Records.

Pacquiao briefly starred for the TV series by GMA, Carlo J. Caparas' Totoy Bato, alongside fellow actors Robin Padilla and Regine Velasquez. It was first aired in February 2009.

Pacquiao and American actor Sylvester Stallone are in plans of doing a movie. Stallone has stated interest in doing a movie with Pacquiao, who he said will be his co-star in the movie. Stallone, being a Pacquiao fan, showed interest. If the script passes and both sides agree, the film will be Pacquiao's big break to the American audience and American main stream. Plans were only confirmed and interest, thus the script is in works and confirmation as well of both sides agreements of the plot and characters are still not confirmed.

Pacquiao was also mentioned by World Wrestling Entertainment's ECW on Syfy color commentator Matt Striker in reference to Christian's tag team match with Tommy Dreamer vs. Jack Swagger and Mark Henry. Striker compares Christian's left and right punches like the speed of Pacquiao's fists.

Pacquiao has been included by Time Magazine as one of the world's most influential people for the year 2009, for his exploits in boxing and his influence among the Filipino people. Pacquiao was also included by Forbes Magazine in its annual Celebrity 100 list for the year 2009, joining Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie and fellow athletes Tiger Woods and Bryant. Forbes also listed Pacquiao as world's 6th highest-paid athlete, with a total of $40 million from second half of 2008 to first half of 2009. The athletes who ranked ahead of Pacquiao were Woods at number 1 spot ($110 million); Bryant, basketball legend Michael Jordan, and Formula One star Kimi Räikkönen sharing the number 2 rank ($45 million each); and football superstar David Beckham at number 5 ($42 million). Pacquiao had also won the 2009 ESPY Awards for the Best Fighter category, beating fellow boxer Shane Mosley and Brazilian mixed martial arts fighter Lyoto Machida.