Manny Pacquiao, in full Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao, byname Pac-Man, (born December 17, 1978, Kibawe, Bukidnon province, Mindanao, Philippines), professional boxer, media celebrity, and politician who became world-famous for winning boxing titles in more weight classes than any other boxer in history. His rise from abject poverty to the pinnacle of his sport was made even more remarkable by his life outside the ring. The charismatic “Pac-Man” was an idol and a unifying force in the Philippines, where his unprecedented popularity led to commercial endorsements, movies, television shows, CDs, and his image on a postage stamp.
Pacquiao left dwelling as a youngster and stowed away on a ship sure for Manila, the place he turned a boxer. He made his skilled debut as a junior flyweight on January 22, 1995, on the age of 16. Many of his early bouts have been televised on a program referred to as Blow by Blow, the place his all-action fashion and boyish smile shortly made him a favorite with Filipino boxing followers. He received his first main title on December 4, 1998, knocking out Thailand’s Chatchai Sasakul to seize the World Boxing Council (WBC) flyweight title. After failing to make weight, nonetheless, he misplaced the title to Medgoen Singsurat of Thailand in September 1999. Pacquiao moved up in weight class, and on June 23, 2001, in his first struggle within the United States, he scored a sixth-round knockout of Lehlo Ledwaba to win the International Boxing Federation (IBF) junior featherweight title. Following 4 profitable defenses, he knocked out Mexico’s Marco Antonio Barrera on November 15, 2003, to grow to be The Ring journal featherweight champion.
Over the following a number of years, Pacquiao engaged in a sequence of high-profile fights, successful the World Boxing Association (WBA) and IBF featherweight titles, the WBC and The Ring’s junior light-weight titles, and the WBC light-weight title. His rise was aided by American coach Freddie Roach, who steadily remodeled the left-handed slugger right into a multifaceted boxer with out detracting from his pure aggression or punching energy. He was the Boxing Writers Association of America and The Ring’s Fighter of the Year in 2006 and 2008.
On December 6, 2008, Pacquiao confronted and thrashed American boxing star Oscar De La Hoya in a celebrated nontitle welterweight bout in Las Vegas. By then Pacquiao had grow to be a whole fighter, combining glorious footwork, blazing pace, and a vastly improved protection, and he was extensively thought of, pound for pound, the world’s best boxer. In addition, Pacquiao’s recognition as a pay-per-view (PPV) boxing attraction had elevated steadily since 2002, however the match with De La Hoya was his breakthrough as a worldwide phenomenon. The struggle offered roughly 1.25 million buys, producing roughly $70 million in PPV income, one of many largest PPV grosses in historical past for a nonheavyweight bout.
On May 2, 2009, Pacquiao received The Ring’s junior welterweight championship (his sixth weight class as a champion and his ninth as knowledgeable boxer) with a spectacular one-punch second-round knockout of England’s Ricky Hatton. On November 14 he added one other championship belt—in a report seventh weight class—when he defeated Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico in 12 rounds to take the World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight title. Pacquiao defended that title on March 13, 2010, in Arlington, Texas, by defeating Ghanaian boxer Joshua Clottey in 12 rounds. He elevated his weight-class titles report to eight when, on November 13, 2010, he soundly defeated WBC tremendous welterweight champion Antonio Margarito, who outweighed Pacquiao by 17 kilos on the time of the struggle.
Pacquiao had a 15-bout successful streak that got here to an abrupt finish in June 2012 when he misplaced his WBO welterweight title to Timothy Bradley in a controversial break up determination. In December 2012 he misplaced a non-title bout to Juan Manuel Márquez—in opposition to whom Pacquiao had beforehand received two fights and drawn one other—when he was knocked out within the sixth spherical. It was the primary time Pacquiao had been knocked out since Singsurat did so in 1999. He regained the WBO welterweight belt in April 2014 by beating Bradley in a unanimous determination. Pacquiao’s subsequent main bout was in opposition to the undefeated Floyd Mayweather in May 2015, a much-anticipated contest that the 2 fighters’ camps had been negotiating on and off for greater than six years. In that occasion, Pacquiao was unable to mount an efficient offense in opposition to Mayweather, who was arguably the best defensive fighter of his technology, and he misplaced by unanimous determination. After having received a call over Bradley on April 9, 2016, he retired from boxing for 4 months earlier than saying one other struggle. On July 2, 2017, he misplaced a call and the WBO welterweight title to Australia’s Jeff Horn. Pacquiao bounced again to seize the WBA welterweight title in a victory over Lucas Matthysse on July 15, 2018. On July 20, 2019, he received a break up determination over the beforehand undefeated Keith Thurman to take the WBA tremendous welterweight belt and grow to be, at 40 years outdated, the oldest welterweight champion in boxing historical past.
In 2003 Pacquiao was voted Person of the Year within the Philippines over Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who was then two years into her time period as president of the nation. Four years later, in 2007, he unsuccessfully ran for a seat within the nationwide legislature. He then returned to boxing full-time, however a couple of days after his November 2009 bout he shaped a brand new “local” political celebration, the Peoples’ Champ Movement, again within the Philippines. He once more declared his candidacy for a legislative seat, for a district in Mindanao, and, on May 10, 2010, received by an awesome margin. He was reelected to the submit in 2013. On May 9, 2016, Pacquiao was considered one of 12 new senators elected to the Philippine Senate.