By Mark Calooke: Manny Pacquiao started his life in dire conditions. To say he had humble beginnings would be an understatement. Constantly hungry and dreaming of a better life for himself and his family, he strived for greater things. Boxing was the path he chose and it led him on a path unimaginable for someone from such an unprivileged background. Everyone knows Manny was poor, but not everyone knows just how poor. His home was in fact a shack. He was forced to work in any job possible in order to eat.
No one can really question the achievements of Manny Pacquiao. He is the only 8 weight world champion ever, won 10 world titles, it has officially been 5 years since anyone was above Pacquiao in the pound 4 pound ranking, 4 of those years he was pound 4 pound number 1 (currently there isn’t anybody at #1 and Pacquiao is ranked joint at number 2), voted the 24th most influential man in the world by Askmen.com, Forbes voted him as the 33rd most powerful man in the world, KO of the year against Ricky Hatton, numerous fighter of the year awards and of course, fighter of the decade. No one has achievements like this.
Pacquiao of course has his haters, not many, but a few. Haters like tarnish success out of envy. One such example is the catch weight situation. Haters are negative and fans of boxing are positive. The first looks at it as an unfair advantage to one boxer. The former looks at it as a chance of possibilities. It means boxers was different weight classes can make dream fights. If Pacquiao said to everyone “if you wish to face me come to my weight division”. It’s what most champions do. But Pacquiao isn’t. He is making separate weight limits to give himself less of an advantage than what he would have should his opponents come to his weight. Pacquiao has only ever fought in 3 catch weight fights. Not many fans know that. Let’s not forget that Pacquiao offered to face Cotto this year at a catch weight of 150 lbs. This weight gives Cotto the advantage, not Pacquiao.
Most counties around the world see Pacquiao as the best in the world. Europe, Asia, Africa ect. The only place that sees Mayweather as being the best is America, but of course Mayweather is American and is a hero. That doesn’t surprise me as Floyd is a great fighter. But for me there is only 3 boxers amongst the elite. That is Sugar Ray Robinson, Muhammad Ali and Manny Pacquiao.
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