Manny “PacMan” Pacquiao is the best boxer on the planet. On Saturday, November 13, the diminutive pugilist will test his considerable ring talents in Dallas against Antonio Margarito for the vacant Super Welterweight 154 pound world title. Though many see Margarito, who holds a whopping six-inch reach advantage, as his most dangerous opponent to date, Pacquiao is no stranger to adversity, and the past that he has had to overcome speaks volumes of the fighter’s strength and character. A past that ultimately explains why even at the top of his game, Manny is ready to walk away from it all to help his people.
Born Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao in Kibawe, a municipality in the Northern Mindanao region of the Philippines, Manny Pacquiao grew up in abject poverty, one of six children who was never sure even where their next meal was coming from.
“Sometimes we would eat once a day and sometimes we won’t have food one day. That’s how we struggled before, and that’s why we just always pray to God we will find a way to be [successful],” Pacquiao said in a recent interview. “We had nothing.”
At age 14, Pacquiao dropped out of school and left his hometown to move to Manila to try to find a job in order to make money to help out his struggling family. Jobs that were available were few and far between, and Pacquiao found himself doing anything he could to get by, often sleeping in the streets at night to save as much as he could to send home.
“No money to buy food, hungry,” Pacquiao said. “I’ll always remember my past. When I was young, I had no one to help [me].”
Boxing was the key to changing his life; Pacquiao became an amateur boxer and in his two years before turning pro, reportedly won 60 of his 64 matches. He was even invited onto the Philippine national amateur boxing team, where his room and board were paid for by the government, giving the young teen his first taste of stability.
At 16 the fighter turned pro, and had his first bout against Edmund “Enting” Ignacio, winning by decision. Pacquiao slowly climbed the ranks of professional boxing, and through hard work and determination became the first fighter in boxing history to win world titles in seven different weight divisions. His last fight, on November 14 of last year against Miguel Cotto, netted PacMan a cool $22 million.
Many fighters, given a past like that of Pacquiao, would have been happy to take that money and retire to a private life, enjoying all the trappings that their hard work had provided. Manny Pacquiao, however, did not rest on his laurels or choose to waste his life and money. Instead, the boxer found himself driven to better his country, and to help his people. Running for Congress in Sarangani province, the hometown of his wife Jinkee, Pacquiao soundly defeated his opponent Roy Chiongbian by nearly a 2:1 voting margin on May 13, 2010. His victory ended the political reign of the Chiongbian clan in the region, which had been in office for over 30 years.
Pacquiao has not taken his newfound political position with a grain of salt; the world champion has been working ’round the clock to bring a much needed hospital to the province and has introduced a bill to provide funds for local medical aid.
“Before, if you get sick there, you have no medicine,” Pacquiao said. “If it’s an emergency, you die.”
Though Pacquiao’s trainers and staff understand that Manny is doing what he believes he has been called to do as a Congressman, they are quite concerned that his focus on the Phillipines is dangerous to his boxing career.
“I’m always waiting for a different Pacquiao to walk into the gym each time we start training camp, and yes, this time, there was a change in him. He said he missed his job. I told him, ‘This is your job’, but he said not this job, the one he has in Congress,” Pacquiao’s boxing trainer Freddie Roach said. “I’d never heard anything like that from him.”
Pacquiao, however, does not believe that things have changed his focus. “I’m 100 percent ready,” Pacquiao declared as he breezed through training at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood.
Roach, who has trained multiple world champions, including Mike Tyson, in the past believes that Manny is at a crossroads in his life. “We will lose him to politics some day soon, maybe after this fight if I’m honest,” he stated.
Pacquiao has made it clear that as both a boxer, and a politician, he will always fight those back home.
“There’s a lot of people there, people who don’t even have a place to live,” Pacquiao recently stated. “They need help…I have already achieved my goals in boxing and I want to achieve more in the public service in my country,” Pacquiao said. “I want to be a champion of public service.”
All of us here at Positively Celebrity laud Manny Pacquiao’s incredible efforts to help the people of his country, and wish him the best in all of his future political endeavors. We all are also rooting for PacMan to beat Antonio Margarito soundly this upcoming Saturday, November 13, in their bout at Dallas Stadium!
Be sure to check back for more great inspirational stories from Richard Munassi right here at Positively Celebrity.
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Nice article. It is always great to see an athlete use their fame for something good. (Especially a boxer)
Great read! Pac-Man is most def a class act!
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