LOOKING BACK AT PACQUIAO?S AMAZING CAREER
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 29 Nov 2014
Manny Pacquiao went through life like syrup over hot cake. He was a street kid, who grew up in the ghetto of Barangay Labangal, known as the Tondo of General Santos City. As a four-year-old kid, he gathered firewood from the mountains to help mother Dionisia raise him and five other siblings. He wasn?t a high school dropout because he never reached high school.
He fought in the streets during fiestas, in regional meets and earned slots in the national training pool but never made it to the national team.
His father abandoned him and his family when he was only six years old. Poverty forced him to leave the city and his mother at age 14 to try his luck in the Big City where his pro-career started two years later in January 1995.
He would fill the Araneta Coliseum, The Alamo Stadium in San Antonio, Texas, The Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, also in Texas and the Mandalay Bay and MGM in Las Vegas and Cotai Arena in Macau.
Whenever and wherever he faces his rivals mano-a-mano, the entire country of 100 million comes to a virtual standstill with rival military and rebel forces going to undeclared truce to watch and celebrate their hero?s victories and cried hiss every loss.
Hard to believe that be able to fight his first bout, a four-rounder, Pacquiao had to put coins and ball bearings inside his pockets to make 106-pound light-flyweight limit.
Pacquiao emerged victor in his first 11 fights from 1995 to 1996, four of them via stoppage, before tasting a lost, a TKO to one Rustico Torrecampo in only his second flyweight fight. Unfazed by his first loss, Pacquiao went his way to 15 straight victories, en route to annexing the World Boxing Council flyweight championship at the expense of Gabriel Mira, but lost the same title to Thai Medgoen Lukchaopormasak in his first defense, while fighting overweight.
Pacquiao defeats Ledwaba in 2001.
Pacquiao annihilates Barrera in 2003.
That didn?t stop him from invading the boxing cities of the world and in 2001, TKOed Lehlohonolo Ledwaba in the sixth of a 12-round title bout to wrest the International Boxing Federation junior-featherweight plum, retaining the crown in KO wins against the likes of legendary Mexican Marco Antonio Barrera, Jorge Julio and namesake Emmanuel Lucero in a span of five years under Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach.
That was before suffering the third loss of his career to Erik Morales in an elimination for the WBC super-featherweight crown. He avenged that loss though by stopping Morales twice. Another streak of 15 triumphs followed that defeat to Morales as the Filipino boxing sensation, who was born December 17, 1978 continued conquering the super-featherweight over Juan Manuel Marquez, lightweight over David Diaz, junior welterweight over Oscar DeLa Hoya, welterweight over Miguel Cotto and junior middleweight over Antonio Margarito in his campaign stretching to 2011.
Pacquiao knocks out Erik Morales in their third fight.
Pacquiao stops De La Hoya in 2009.
Pacquiao has to fight Marquez four times with a 2-1-1 score in Pacquiao's favor.
That 15-victory streak was broken in a controversial loss to then unbeaten American Timothy Bradley on January 9, 2012. Marquez completed his only back-to-back defeats in his career in that same year via a near career-ending sixth round KO. The world looked up to him as the best pound-for-pound fighter of this era with his punching power, speed, determination and dedication to vault back from one adversity to another on the way to a 57-5-2 win-loss-draw record with 38 KOs, thus, becoming the only man on earth to win eight eight-division world championships.
Pacquiao is the current World Boxing Organization welterweight belt-holder, a title he re-claimed at the expense of American Timothy Bradley last April and defended only last Sunday against another American Chris Algieri in Macau.
Pacquiao fought Bradley twice.
Pacquiao sent Algieri to the canvas six times en route to a historically lopsided scores.
In pulverizing Algieri, who along with his handlers in pre-fights statements vowed to knock him out and retire him, Pacquiao forced his challenger to kiss the canvas a record six times, the most in memory, that produced the most lopsided scores submitted by the three judges ? 120-102, 119-103 and 118-103?were arguably considered the largest margin in the history of prizefighting.
Speaking of records, the two plane-load 350-man Pacquiao entourage, likewise, came out the biggest brought by any fighter in a boxing match. In the same way that the all-Pastor choir that sang the Philippine National Anthem was also a first in boxing. That near shutout win over Algieri, a master?s degree holder in college, was his second in a row against undefeated fighters, counting his revenge victory over Bradley early this year.
Pacquiao, a father of five with Sarangani Vice Gov. Jinkee, was a former super-welterweight, junior-welterweight, lightweight, super-featherweight, featherweight and super-bantamweight, flyweight titleholder. A recipient of the ?Fighter of the Year? (FOY) Awards twice from ESPY and thrice from the Boxing Writers Association of America, Pacquiao was named ?Fighter of the Decade" (2000-2011), also by the BWAA.
His third FOY award tied him with the great Muhammad Ali and Evander Holyfield as the most in the history of BWAA. He was chosen as Fighter of the Decade over Bernard Hopkins, Joe Calzaghe, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Shane Moseley, Juan Manuel Marquez and Marco Antonio Barrera.
Pacquiao graces the cover of Time magazine in 2009.
Pacquiao was named by Time Magazine as one of the most influential people for the year 2009 and by Forbes Magazine in its 100 lists for the same year in the company of Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie, and fellow athletes Tiger Woods and Kobe Bryant.
He was also in the list of Highest Paid Athletes from the second half of 2008 to the first half of 2009 with NBA superstar LeBron James and golfer Phil Mickelson and a few years ago with baseball standout Derek Jeter.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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