PACQUIAO WINS ESPN?S ESPY AWARD AS FIGHTER OF THE YEAR
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 14 Jul 2011
Pound for pound king Manny Pacquiao has added another coveted award to his already overcrowded trophy room by winning the ESPN ESPY award as ?Fighter of the Year? in a star-studded ceremony at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles.
The annual awards handed out by the recognized worldwide leader in sports, ESPN, regained the crown after he lost out to Floyd Mayweather Jr last year.
Pacquiao not only bested the finest fighters in the world such as the ageless Bernard Hopkins and 2010 Boxing Writers Association of America ?Fighter of the Year,? middleweight champion Sergio Martinez but also UFC welterweight champion Georges Saint Pierre who is himself an avid fan of Pacquiao and is also trained by Freddie Roach in honing his boxing skills.
The ESPY awards are decided by online voting after nominees in each category are selected by a select nominating committee.
Pacquiao has been nominated for the award four times and has won it on three occasions, the last time being 2009 when he beat out Sugar Shane Mosley among others.
This time around fans around the world demonstrated their overwhelming support for Pacquiao as the best fighter in both boxing and mixed martial arts.
In his last two fights Pacquiao demolished the much bigger and heavier Antonio Margarito in a twelve round unanimous decision before scoring another lopsided win over Mosley.
With eight titles in eight separate weight divisions, Pacquiao was named the ?Fighter of the Decade? by the BWAA.
His trophies include the 2006, 2008 and 2009 Ring Magazine ?Fighter of the Year? awards, 2006, 2008 and 2009 BWAA ?Fighter of the Year,? 2008 and 2009 ESPN Star Sports ?Champion of Champions ? and the 2008 Yahoo Sports ?Fighter of the Year.?
In addition to these awards the Filipino southpaw who was elected to congress by an overwhelming majority in the May 2010 elections as representative of Sarangani was also named by the prestigious Time Magazine as one of the most influential people in the world in 2009 for his achievements in the ring and his influence among Filipinos.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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