Manny Pacquiao

At 45 years old, Manny Pacquiao has this physical status:

Manny Pacquiao has an amateur record of 60–4 and a record of 62–8–2 as a professional, with 39 wins by knockout. Boxing historian Bert Sugar ranked Pacquiao as the greatest southpaw fighter of all time. In 2020, Pacquiao topped the Ranker's list of best boxers of the 21st century.

Pacquiao made history by being the first boxer ever to win world titles in eight weight divisions, having won twelve major world titles, as well as being the first boxer to win the lineal championship in five different weight classes. Pacquiao is also the first boxer in history to win major world titles in four of the original eight weight classes of boxing, also known as the "glamour divisions" (flyweight, featherweight, lightweight and welterweight), and the first boxer ever to become a four-decade world champion, winning world championships across four decades (1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s).

Pacquiao was long rated as the best active boxer in the world, pound for pound, by most sporting news and boxing websites, including ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Sporting Life, Yahoo! Sports, About.com, BoxRec and The Ring, beginning from his climb to lightweight until his losses in 2012. He is also the longest reigning top-ten active boxer on The Ring's pound for pound list from 2003-2016.

Pacquiao has generated approximately 20.4 million in pay-per-view (PPV) buys and $1.3 billion in revenue from 26 PPV-bouts. Per Forbes, he was the world's second highest paid athlete in 2015.

Pacquiao signed with Bob Arum's Top Rank from 2015 to 2017 and Al Haymon's Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) promotion on 2018 alongside Paradigm Sports on 2020.

On September 29, 2021, Pacquiao announced his retirement from boxing, in a post on social media.

Pacquiao was introduced to boxing at the age of 12 by his maternal uncle Sardo Mejia. According to his autobiography, Pacquiao said watching Mike Tyson's defeat of James "Buster" Douglas in 1990 with his Uncle Sardo as an experience that, "changed my life forever." Mejia began training his nephew in a makeshift home gym. After 6 months of training, Pacquiao began boxing in a park in General Santos eventually traveling to other cities to fight higher-ranked opponents. By age 15, he was considered the best junior boxer in the southern Philippines and he moved to Manila. In January 1995, at the age of 16, he made his professional boxing debut as a junior flyweight.

Pacquiao stated of his early years, "Many of you know me as a legendary boxer, and I'm proud of that. However, that journey was not always easy. When I was younger, I became a fighter because I had to survive. I had nothing. I had no one to depend on except myself. I realized that boxing was something I was good at, and I trained hard so that I could keep myself and my family alive."

On December 4, 1998, at the age of 19, he won his first major title, the World Boxing Council (WBC) flyweight title.

Over the course of his decorated career, Pacquiao has defeated 22 world champions: Chatchai Sasakul, Lehlohonolo Ledwaba, Jorge Eliécer Julio, Marco Antonio Barrera (twice), Érik Morales (twice), Óscar Larios, Jorge Solís, Juan Manuel Márquez (twice), David Díaz, Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Miguel Cotto, Joshua Clottey, Antonio Margarito, Shane Mosley, Brandon Ríos, Timothy Bradley (twice), Chris Algieri, Jessie Vargas, Lucas Matthysse, Adrien Broner and Keith Thurman.

Pacquiao's most recent bout was against Yordenis Ugás in August 2021.

Pacquiao also participated in an exhibition match against former world champion Jesus Salud in August 2002 which he won.

Pacquiao was named "Fighter of the Decade" for the 2000s by the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA), World Boxing Council (WBC), and World Boxing Organization (WBO). In 2006, 2008, and 2009, he was awarded Ring magazine, ESPN and BWAA's Fighter of the Year, and in 2009 and 2011 he won the Best Fighter ESPY Award. BoxRec ranks him as the greatest Asian fighter of all time. In 2016, Pacquiao ranked No. 2 on ESPN's list of top pound for pound boxers of the past 25 years and he ranks No.5 in BoxRec's ranking of the greatest pound for pound boxers of all time.

Manny Pacquiao is a holder of six Guinness Book World Records. He has the most consecutive boxing world title fight victories at different weights at 15, between 2005 and 2011; he is named the oldest welterweight boxing world champion when he claimed the WBA Welterweight title aged 40 years 215 days on July 20, 2019; he has the most boxing world titles won in different weight divisions with eight, when he defeated Antonio Margarito (USA) to win the WBC Super Welterweight title on November 13, 2010. He has also held sanctioned belts in the WBC Flyweight, Super Featherweight and Lightweight divisions, plus The Ring Featherweight, IBF Super Bantamweight, IBO and The Ring Light Welterweight and WBO Welterweight. He recorded the highest selling pay-per-view boxing match in a Welterweight title fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, on May 2, 2015, and the highest revenue earned from ticket sales for a boxing match from ticket sales title fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, on May 2, 2015.

Pacquiao 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 the request of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to the national sports officials on the Philippines at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He had the opportunity to compete in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil, when professional boxers under the age of 40 were allowed to compete in the games for the first time. However Pacquiao, decided not to compete.

Forbes listed Pacquiao as the world's equal sixth highest paid athlete, with a total of $40 million or ₱2 billion pesos from the second half of 2008 to the first half of 2009. Tied with him on the sixth spot was NBA player LeBron James and golfer Phil Mickelson. Pacquiao was again included in Forbes' list of highest paid athletes from the second half of 2009 to the first half of 2010; he was ranked eighth with an income of $42 million. Pacquiao also won the 2009 ESPY Awards for the Best Fighter category, beating fellow boxer Shane Mosley and Brazilian mixed martial arts fighters Lyoto Machida and Anderson Silva. ESPN Magazine reported that Pacquiao was one of the two top earning athletes for 2010, alongside American Major League Baseball player Alex Rodriguez. According to the magazine's annual salary report of athletes, Pacquiao earned $32 million (approximately PhP 1.38 billion) for his two 2010 boxing matches against Clottey and Margarito.

Basketball career

On April 17, 2014, Pacquiao, a passionate basketball fan, announced his intention to join the Philippine Basketball Association as the playing coach of Kia Motors Basketball team, an incoming expansion team for the PBA's 2014–15 season. As the team's head coach, he asked other teams to not draft him before Kia, and picked himself 11th overall in the first round of the 2014 PBA draft, being the oldest rookie to be ever drafted in the league's history. Pacquiao played basketball as part of his training before his matches and prior to his PBA stint, Pacquiao was named an honorary member of the Boston Celtics and established friendships with Steph Curry and basketball Hall of Famers Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen. NBA player Karl-Anthony Towns cites Pacquiao as a "legend" & visited him along with Klay Thompson at training.

On September 4, 2014, Pacquiao trained with the Golden State Warriors at their training facility in preparation for his PBA stint. On February 18, 2015, Pacquiao played briefly and scored one point when the Sorento pulled an 95–84 upset against Purefoods that tapped former NBA player Daniel Orton as their import for the conference, when asked about playing against him he said that Pacquiao as a basketball player was a "mockery of the game and a joke". Orton was fined by PBA commissioner Chito Salud and was replaced after a few days.

On October 25, 2015, Pacquiao made his first field goal in the PBA in a 108–94 loss against the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters. On August 21, 2016, Pacquiao scored a career-high four points in a 97–88 victory against the Blackwater Elite, also sinking the first three-point field goal in his career. He appeared rarely in the succeeding seasons as he was focused on other commitments.

In 2017, Pacquiao founded the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League, a prominent semi-professional league in the Philippines. In 2018, although being rumored to transfer to Blackwater, Pacquiao officially announced his retirement from the league after playing just ten games in three seasons and scoring less than fifteen career points. He played one game for the Senate Defenders in a televised-amateur league and scored 12 points on that same year. In 2019, he announced that he is "planning to own an NBA team" after boxing retirement.

Political career

On February 12, 2007, Pacquiao announced his campaign for a seat in the Philippine House of Representatives to represent the 1st District of South Cotabato province running as a candidate of the Liberal Party faction under Manila mayor Lito Atienza. Pacquiao, said he was persuaded to run by the local officials of General Santos, hoping he would act as a bridge between their interests and the national government. Ultimately Pacquiao was forced to run under the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (KAMPI), a pro-Arroyo political party by the courts. Pacquiao was defeated in the election by incumbent Rep. Darlene Antonino-Custodio of the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC), who said, "More than anything, I think, people weren't prepared to lose him as their boxing icon."

In preparation for his political career in the Filipino House of Representatives, Pacquiao enrolled in the Certificate Course in Development, Legislation, and Governance at the Development Academy of the Philippines – Graduate School of Public and Development Management (DAP-GSPDM).

On November 21, 2009, Pacquiao announced that he would run again for a congressional seat, but this time in Sarangani province, the hometown of his wife Jinkee. In May 2010, Pacquiao was elected to the House of Representatives in the 15th Congress of the Philippines, representing the province of Sarangani. He scored a landslide victory over the wealthy and politically well-entrenched Chiongbian clan that had been in power in the province for more than thirty years. Pacquiao got 120,052 votes while his opponent for the seat, Roy Chiongbian, got 60,899 votes.

In 2010, Pacquiao made a speech on human trafficking that earned praise. However, he also received criticism for coming out as uninformed during a discussion of the contentious reproductive health bill that same year.

In 2013, he was re-elected to the 16th Congress of the Philippines. He ran unopposed. Additionally, his wife, Jinkee, was also elected as vice-governor of Sarangani, while his younger brother, Rogelio lost his bid as congressman.

Because of other commitments, Pacquiao only attended one Congress session on the congress' final leg and was criticized for being the top absentee among lawmakers. Pacquiao filed a total of less than 20 bills in six years, with zero of them passing beyond committee.

On October 5, 2015, Pacquiao formally declared that he was running for senator under the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) party of vice-president Jejomar Binay. On May 19, 2016, Pacquiao was formally elected as a senator by the Commission on Elections. Pacquiao garnered over 16 million votes, landing at 7th place.

Pacquiao earlier aligned himself with the Duterte government. He facilitated on September 18, 2016, the ouster of Leila de Lima (a Duterte critic) from the chairmanship of the Senate Justice committee and criticized de Lima's presentation three days later of an alleged member of the Davao Death Squad.

In another Senate hearing, Pacquiao defended then-Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte from allegations of having a part, along with the vice mayor's alleged drinking buddy Charlie Tan and Kenneth Dong, in a 2017 seized ₱6.4-billion shipment of illegal drugs from Xiamen, China into the Philippines.

As of 2018, Pacquiao has filed a total of 31 Senate bills during the 17th Congress. And in a bill filed alongside Senator Bato dela Rosa and Bong Go, he backed the return of capital punishment.

In June 2019, the Philippine Senate released a data showing Pacquiao as having the worst attendance record among all senators in the 17th Congress, reflecting a struggle Pacquiao had since he was a congressman. Despite the poor attendance, he still managed to enact four laws from the bills he filed.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Pacquiao worked with Alibaba Group co-founder Jack Ma to help bring to the Philippines 50,000 COVID-19 test kits through their respective charity foundations.

In December 2020, Pacquiao became acting party president of PDP-Laban, the ruling political party, when Koko Pimentel resigned. However, the position will eventually become disputed between Pacquiao and Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi. Alfonso Cusi's faction through a vote decided that Pacquiao is no longer party president of PDP-Laban on July 17. Melvin Matibag, the deputy secretary-general of PDP-Laban, defended the vote, saying it was organized because the term limits of the party's officials had already expired. Pacquiao is still regarded by his faction as party president.

In May 2021, Senator Pacquiao filed a bill proposing to create the Philippine Boxing and Combat Sports Commission. The move, however, was lambasted by Senator Pia Cayetano who criticized the timing of the proposal in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Pacquiao earlier already tried filing the bill during the 17th Congress when Pacquiao and Senator Franklin Drilon made headlines after Pacquiao called out the latter and senior legislator to use his "common sense" during an interpellation about the topic while Pacquiao was apparently being coached by his advisers after struggling to answer Drilon.

In May 2022, Pacquiao called for the "speedy release" of fellow Senator Leila De Lima, who was detained for five years now, after witnesses against De Lima retracted their testimony. Pacquiao had earlier been vocal about De Lima's supposed links to a purported drug lord, Kerwin Espinosa, an allegation that led to De Lima's arrest and detention.

As early as June 2020, Pacquiao's former promoter Bob Arum declared that the senator expressed that he will run in 2022 in a conversation with him uttering "Bob, I’m gonna run in 2022 and, when I win, I want you there at my inauguration.'” Speculations quickly spread around a possible Pacquiao run for president, backed by his own expression of interest in a presidential bid.

In June 2021, he expressed belief that Duterte's response towards China's claims in the South China Sea was lacking. Duterte rebuked Pacquiao for the statement, saying the latter lacked knowledge in foreign policy. The President also responded to a claim attributed to Pacquiao that the Duterte administration is more corrupt than those by his predecessors; Duterte challenged Pacquiao to name certain individuals or agencies, otherwise he will launch a negative campaign against the senator in the 2022 elections.

A month after being asked about the possibility of him running in the postgame interview after losing his final boxing match against Yordenis Ugas, Pacquiao officially announced his presidential bid on September 19, 2021, during the National Assembly of the PDP-Laban, organized by his faction. On October 1, he formally registered his candidacy under the Cebu-based party PROMDI. This was in accordance with the "MP3 Alliance" established by PDP Laban under Pacquiao's faction with PROMDI, and the People's Champ Movement. Cusi in response to Pacquiao's filing of candidacy under PROMDI decided that he is no longer a member of PDP-Laban.

His platforms include solving corruption and a promise of nationwide housing projects for the poor. Since the campaign period started on February, he had struggled in the presidential surveys with low ratings ranking fourth to fifth among the candidates, dropping to as low as 1.8 percent on the March 2022 poll by Publicus Asia and 8 percent on Pulse Asia with his disapproval rating going up.

In March 2022, amid recent news about frontrunner Bongbong Marcos unsettled tax dues amounting to 200 billion pesos, Pacquiao openly challenged Marcos to a one-on-one debate and made remarks against critics saying "he's not intelligent enough to be president" saying that "the most dumb in this country are those who are going to vote for a plunderer". Pacquiao only placed third in the election and later conceded to Marcos, who won by a landslide.

Entertainment career

With growing fame, Pacquiao became a celebrity and was obligated to start his acting and hosting career with guest appearances on ABS-CBN shows. He signed a contract as an actor & host with ABS-CBN short-after.

In December 2005, Pacquiao took his first lead role in Violett Films' Lisensyadong Kamao (Licensed Fist). The film is titled so because (according to director Tony Bernal), being a boxer, Pacquiao is licensed to use his hands.

In 2008, Pacquiao starred with Ara Mina and Valerie Concepcion in Anak ng Kumander (Child of a Commander). The movie was not a commercial success and was panned by critics.

Pacquiao starred in the superhero/comedy film entitled Wapakman, which was released on December 25, 2009, as an entry to the 2009 Metro Manila Film Festival. Like his previous films, Wapakman was not commercially successful.

Upon the expiration of his contract with ABS-CBN, Pacquiao signed with GMA Network as an actor and host in September 2007. On December 17, 2007, he taped his first episode of the networks infotainment show Pinoy Records. His other projects with the network included Totoy Bato and the sitcom Show Me Da Manny, where he appeared as Marian Rivera's onscreen loveteam, and in which his mother, Dionisia, also appeared. He also hosted his own game show Manny Many Prizes where he gave out prizes to his audience.

In 2020, he was cast to portray General Miguel Malvar in the upcoming biopic film Malvar: Tuloy ang Laban about the Philippine hero, which gained mixed reactions from the Malvar family. Gabriel, grandson of General Malvar's youngest child Pablo, worries that Pacquiao's fame might overshadow his movie character. While Villegas, son of Malvar's daughter Isabel, supports the casting.

Pacquiao recorded songs to use as entrance music for his fights and released them on two albums that were certified platinum locally in the Philippines. Most of the Tagalog songs of Pacquiao were composed by Lito Camo who wrote Pacquiao's biggest hit and primarily known song "Para Sayo ang Laban Na 'To".

On November 3, 2009, Pacquiao covered "Sometimes When We Touch", originally by Dan Hill, on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, marking his first singing performance on American TV. He went back to the late-night talk show on March 3, 2010, to cover another song, "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love for You". He would later record Dan Hill's hit in April 2011 as a single which reached number 19 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. It made Pacquiao one of the few Southeast Asians to enter a US Billboard chart. He also appeared with Will Ferrell and sang a version of John Lennon's "Imagine" for his third guesting on the show. His appearances on the show led to Canadian rapper Drake impersonating him and making fun of his singing by creating a parody. Pacquiao responded by posting another video of himself singing. In 2015, he released an extended play that featured his own recorded entrance song for his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and shortly announced his retirement from music, being quoted saying "I love music, but music is not for me".

The following are Manny Pacquiao's albums from 2006 to 2015:

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