Source: Manila Bulletin
Manny Pacquiao fought the best fighters in seven divisions, made more money than all PBA players, active or inactive, combined and became a world figure in sports mentioned in the same breath as Tiger Woods and Kobe Bryant.
The last decade truly belongs to the former construction worker who rose to become the country’s greatest and richest athlete.
Save for a minor hump in early-2005, the Manny Pacquiao express has been running smoothly since June 2001.
The last nine years, Pacquiao has breezed past everyone thrown against him. His list of victims reads like an All-Star cast: Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales, Juan Manuel Marquez, Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, and Miguel Cotto.
Easily, Pacquiao should make up the short list of all-time greats alongside Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson and Joe Louis. He has done something that no other fighter has done before.
The Filipino is being lionized for becoming the first in history to win seven world titles in as many weight classes, something not even The Greatest, nor the original Sugarman and the Brown Bomber, had pulled off during their heyday.
Pacquiao has fought a total of 21 times (winning 18, losing one and drawing two times) from June 2001 until Nov. 2009, 17 times on US soil, the past eight years and a half, making that stretch and that place a showcase of his ring prowess.
Pacquiao first made heads turn when he captured the International Boxing Federation super-bantamweight throne with a sixth-round stoppage of Lehlo Ledwaba of South Africa at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
After a bloody draw with Agapito Sanchez in late-2001, Pacquiao strung up a string of wins, including against Ring magazine featherweight champion Barrera in 2003.
In March 2005, Pacquiao ran into Morales, suffering his only loss in the US, but he rebounded strongly, beating Morales in their next two fights that had become boxing part of boxing lore.
From then on, Pacquiao rolled on like a runaway locomotive, sideswiping everyone that dared to stand on his path.
Every time experts said he would finally get beat, the Filipino would prove them dead-wrong, displaying the same lightning-quick reflexes and paralyzing power even at heavier weight classes.
When Pacquiao decided to go up against De La Hoya in December 2008, oddsmakers thought the Golden Boy would run roughshod over the one-time flyweight champion.
When he was paired against Hatton and Cotto, there were those who fear for Pacquiao's well-being.
In the end, Pacquiao proved that he could not only bang with the big boys but take them out as well, something that one ring hero from another generation had failed to do.
Gabriel “Flash” Elorde was the last great Filipino champion who regaled his people with his many triumphs but left them broken-hearted as well with his share of tragedies.
Elorde reigned for seven years at junior-lightweight where he made ten successful defenses after being denied of a title at featherweight. He would have been an all-time great but he was knocked out twice by the much bigger Carlos Ortiz for the lightweight title.
In contrast, Pacquiao has won titles at flyweight, super-bantam, feather, super-feather, lightweight, junior-welter and welter.
Outside the prized ring, there were also a handful of exceptional athletes --dribblers Caloy Loyzaga and Robert Jaworski, four-time World Cup bowling king Paeng Nepomuceno, Olympic boxing silver medalists Anthony Villanueva and Onyok Velasco, track queen Lydia de Vega and cue artists Efren Reyes – who, once upon a time were toasts of the town.
However, none of them reached the level of Pacquiao, a plateau that was once considered unfamiliar territory even for the most gifted Filipino athlete.
Pacquiao's popularity and reach has grown dramatically that he now represents boxing as Tiger Woods is in golf and Kobe Bryant does in basketball.
Pacquiao has become an international figure that the New York Times has been compelled to make a return to full-time boxing coverage.
The 31-year-old fighter is well-liked that Time magazine even put him on its cover. GQ magazine recently sent a reporter here to track down Pacquiao for a full-length story that is due to come out in the first quarter of 2010.
In terms of earnings, Pacquiao is head and shoulders above the rest.
Pacquiao breached the billion-peso mark, a milestone he reached as early as last year, and in the process enabling him to being named one of the richest sportsmen in the world.
Apart from his giant purses, Pacquiao also cashes in on endorsement deals with a global brand like Nike and a myriad of local companies that give the fighter tons of money in advertising, one of which is beverage giant San Miguel Corporation, which has a life-long contract with the boxer.
