Manny Pacquiao
“PacMan”
Titles & honours
- Eight-division world champion (only fighter in history)
- Lineal champion in five divisions
Biography
Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao, born Kibawe, Philippines in 1978, is the only fighter in history to win world titles in eight different weight classes (flyweight 1998 through super welterweight 2010). He turned professional at 16, weighing 98 pounds, and was the highest-paid athlete in boxing during the late 2000s. As a southpaw with extraordinary speed and a stiff straight left, he dismantled Marco Antonio Barrera (2003 TKO 11), Erik Morales (split trilogy 1-1-1), Oscar De La Hoya (TKO 8, 2008), Ricky Hatton (KO 2, 2009), and Miguel Cotto (TKO 12, 2009). The legacy bouts against Floyd Mayweather (May 2015, a unanimous decision loss) and Juan Manuel Márquez (December 2012, a 6th-round KO loss) cap his career. Elected to the Philippine Senate in 2016; retired from boxing in 2021 to run unsuccessfully for President.