Watch LIVE Pacquiao vs. Antonio
Manny Pacquiao
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"PacMan"
* "Fighter of the Decade 2000-2009" - Boxing Writers Association of America...
* "2009 Fighter of the Year" - Boxing Writers Association of America...
* "2009 Fighter of the Year" - The Ring...
* "2008 Fighter of the Year" - Boxing Writers Association of America...
* "2008 Fighter of the Year" - The Ring...
* "2006 Fighter of the Year" - Boxing Writers Association of America...
* "2006 Fighter of the Year" - The Ring...
* World championship fights: 10-1-2, 8 KOs...
* Ranked ESPN.com and The Ring #1 "Pound for Pound"...
* WBO welterweight world champion, one succesful defense...
* Former WBC lightweight world champion...
* Former WBC super featherweight world champion...
* Former IBF jr. featherweight world champion, four successful defenses...
* Former WBC flyweight world champion, one successful defense...
* Former WBC International super featherweight champion, three successful defenses...
* Former WBC International super bantamweight champion, five successful defenses...
* Former OPBF (Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation) flyweight champion, one successful defense...
At the age of 31, Manny is a 15-year pro - he made his debut at 16. He has been fighting at the top levels of competition and given some of the most sensational performances in the ring in recent years.
He is not only recognized by many observers as the best fighter at any weight in the ring today - the best "Pound for Pound" - but has also earned comparisons to the sport's all-time greats.
Manny is the national hero of his native Philippines - the entire country of over 96 million people comes to a virtual standstill to watch whenever he fights.
He was also elected this year as a Congressman in the Sarangani province in the Philippines.
Manny's spectacular career has made him a certain future Hall of Famer. But while still in his prime, he has already transcended the sport and reached a level that can be claimed by very few - he has become a legend in his own time.
He was voted "2009 Fighter of the Year" and "Fighter of the Decade 2000-2009" by the Boxing Writers Association of America.
BWAA president Jack Hirsch wrote on their webpage [excerpts]: If there were any doubt that Manny Pacquiao is the biggest star of his sport, it was put to rest by members of the Boxing Writers Association of America. By an overwhelming margin, Pacquiao took home not only the BWAA's newly named "Sugar Ray Robinson Fighter of the Year" award, but went one better by also winning "Fighter of the Decade" honors. For Pacquiao, it was his third BWAA "Fighter of the Year" award, tying him with Muhammad Ali and Evander Holyfield for the most in the history of the organization. [End BWAA item]
The Associated Press reported on February 1 [excerpts]: Manny Pacquiao was honored as the fighter of the decade by the Boxing Writer's Association of America on Monday....
The reigning pound-for-pound king was chosen fighter of the decade over Bernard Hopkins, Joe Calzaghe, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Shane Mosley, Juan Manuel Marquez and Marco Antonio Barrera.
Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, was honored with a record-setting fourth Eddie Futch Award for trainer of the year. Futch once trained Roach, who eventually became his assistant.... [End AP item]
Manny is coming off a 12 round unanimous decision win against former IBF welterweight world champion Joshua Clottey in his last fight on March 13.
After the fight, Dan Rafael wrote on ESPN.com [excerpts]: Round after round, Manny Pacquiao, the greatest fighter in the world, pounded Joshua Clottey like a punching bag.
It permitted plenty of time to reflect on the fighter who has become the greatest show on Earth. It was a one-man show. A virtuoso performance of the highest level.
The boisterous crowd of 50,994 still cheered Pacquiao's every move...in the main event of the first card at Jerry Jones' sparkling $1.2 billion Cowboys Stadium, a spectacle that even featured a trio of Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders singing the Star Spangled Banner.
Pacquiao's transformation has been nothing short of remarkable, and Saturday's fight just added to his growing legend....
Think about it: Pacquiao was a poor kid from the Philippines who came to the United States in 2001 as an obscure former flyweight champion, won a junior featherweight belt and never stopped. He has risen up through the weight classes to win seven world titles in a record seven divisions, knocking out Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto along the way.
He has also become a worldwide phenomenon with a media corps that follows him like it once followed Muhammad Ali. He performs concerts after his fights. And he has become an amazing gate attraction.
He has become the face of boxing.
It was the third-largest indoor attendance in U.S. boxing history, beaten only by the 63,350 who attended the 1979 heavyweight title rematch between Ali and Leon Spinks at the New Orleans Superdome and the 59,995 who attended the 1993 welterweight championship fight between Pernell Whitaker and Julio Cesar Chavez at at the Alamodome in San Antonio. [End Rafael item]
After Manny TKO'd WBO welterweight world champion Miguel Cotto in the twelfth round on November 14, 2009, Thomas Hauser wrote on Secondsout.com [excerpts]: During the past year, Pacquiao has also become a standard-bearer for boxing.
Pacquiao fights with the look of a video-game action hero. He's a remarkable blend of speed, power, endurance, determination, and (in recent years) ring smarts.
Over the past year, each Pacquiao victory has been more remarkable than the one before. The snowball keeps getting bigger. At a promotional event in Manchester, England, to promote Pacquiao's May 2, 2009, fight against hometown hero Ricky Hatton, Manny's fans were so exuberant that Pacquiao was moved to comment, "I think Manchester is now Mannychester."
Pacquiao's November 14th encounter with Cotto shaped up as Manny's toughest test to date. Pacquiao-Cotto wasn't a manufactured event. It was a legitimate super-fight, and the promotion had caught fire.
Time Magazine ran a five-page feature article on Pacquiao in its United States edition and placed him on the cover of its Asian counterpart. The New York Times (which has largely ignored boxing in recent years) ran daily stories on the fight. Google and Twitter reported record numbers for Pacquiao traffic. The fight was completely sold out.
Fight week was The Manny Pacquiao Show.
At the center of it all, Pacquiao seemed to glide effortlessly through the storm of attention. [End Hauser item]
Fightwriter.com's Graham Houston reported [excerpts]: Now it has been confirmed. Manny Pacquiao is truly a phenomenon. He not only defeated Miguel Cotto...he destroyed him.
Pacquiao had demonstrated his dominance long before [the] referee intervened after 55 seconds of the final round.... As the middle rounds arrived, Pacquiao was outclassing him with speed, power and movement.
There were many who thought that the supposedly superior strength of the naturally bigger Cotto might take effect by the later rounds. Instead, it was Pacquiao who looked the bigger, stronger fighter....
The win makes Pacquiao a unique world champion at seven weights, starting in the flyweight division and, while I'm not sure that fighters should be anointed with the appellation of "great" until after their careers are over, I do think that Pacquiao can be compared with the fabulous Henry Armstrong, who held world titles at three weights simultaneously in the 1930s.
As I left the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday night it was with the feeling that I had been privileged to have seen one of the great performances in modern boxing history. [End Houston item]
Manny's night wasn't finished, however, when the fight ended. Afterwards, he went out to join his band for a nightclub gig.
Tim Dahlberg of the Associated Press wrote [excerpts]: Manny Pacquiao had a hat perched jauntily on his head, a bandage wrapped neatly around his right ear. His real work done for the night, he was heading down the Las Vegas Strip to sing a few songs with his band.
Across an ocean, a grateful country celebrated the kind of hero they never dreamed possible. For a few brief hours the devastation of a typhoon was forgotten, and even the Filipino army took a break from chasing rebels to cheer Pacquiao on.
They used to have him as their own. Not many people outside the Philippines paid much attention to the little fighter with the big hands even as he kept moving up in weight over the years and winning gaudy green belts by the handful along the way.
But now they're going to have to share Manny Pacquiao. Greatness comes with a price, and it's hard to argue that Pacquiao hasn't now earned a spot among boxing's greats.
No fighter had ever won titles in seven different weight classes.... And no fighter in recent times has had the kind of year Pacquiao wrapped up by stopping a game but outclassed Cotto....
He leaped into the public consciousness 11 months ago by making Oscar De La Hoya quit on his stool, giving him such a beating that he retired. He followed that by knocking Ricky Hatton stiff in the second round with a left hand that left Hatton contemplating his mortality.
And then came Saturday night....
Once again, Pacquiao had not just beaten a world class fighter, but systematically dismantled him. He did it in his usual - and very unusual - style, bouncing in and out and throwing punches from all angles in a frenetic style never before seen in boxing.
He warmed up by crooning a few verses of "Sometimes When We Touch" at the postfight press conference, then headed out the door for the stage at the Mandalay Bay, his entourage just behind.
The singing was so-so, though no one was going to say that to the champ.
On this night he had earned the right to do whatever he wanted. [End Dahlberg item]
source:www.toprank.com
Watch LIVE Pacquiao vs. Antonio
GO PACMAN!!!
Watch LIVE Pacquiao vs. Antonio
Watch LIVE Pacquiao vs. Antonio
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