Filipino
authorities on last week Thursday certified their national election results,
thereby making boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao one of the island nation's 24
senators. Filipinos elected 12 new senators on May 9, and Pacquiao finished
seventh, with more than 16 million votes.
It signals the end
of his legendary boxing career, which began as a child when he left home to
fight to earn money for his destitute family.
He rose to
unimaginable heights, winning world titles in a record eight weight classes and
becoming one of the two most popular fighters in the world. He was involved in
three of the 14 best-selling pay-per-views in boxing history and developed a
loyal and passionate fan base.
Pacquiao, who ends
his career with a 58-6-2 mark and 38 knockouts, turned professional in 1995,
just a month after his 16th birthday, as a 106-pounder. He went on to win world
titles at flyweight, super bantamweight, featherweight, super featherweight,
lightweight, super lightweight, welterweight and super welterweight.
He never earned a
sanctioning body title belt at featherweight, but he upset Marco Antonio
Barrera in 2003, at a time when Barrera held the linear featherweight
championship. Barrera had dropped his sanctioning body titles before their bout
and was billed as "The King of the Featherweights," at the time of
his bout with Pacquiao.
Pacquiao released a
statement Thursday in which he spoke of his vision for his six-year term in the
Senate. He did not mention his boxing career, but he announced his retirement
following an April 9 win over Timothy Bradley in Las Vegas.
His statement in
full:
Several months ago,
we mounted a campaign to heed the call for help from the poor and downtrodden
Filipino masses. We went out and joined them in their homes and places of work,
we listened to their longings and assured them that a new beginning is coming.
Over the past week, we heard those same voices strongly during the recent
national electoral process. The message was very clear: Filipinos want their
government back in the hands of the ordinary people. They want a new set of
leaders who would stand up for their aspirations and share their goals. For
that reason alone, I accept the challenge with utmost humility and gratitude.
For the millions of common folks who believe in my capacity to put into words
what they cannot express; to champion the causes closest to their hearts; and
to serve them in a higher and greater platform, you have just won a seat in the
Senate. My dearest kababayans, the victory is really yours. I want to reiterate
what I have been telling my countrymen from the mountain ranges in Luzon, to
the coastal towns of Visayas, to the riverside settlements of Mindanao: I will
not let you down. I will not steal from you. I will not fail you. Rest assured
I do everything for God and our country.
He was elected to
the Filipino House of Representatives for the first time in 2010 and was
reelected in 2013. He had been defeated badly in his first bid for political
office in 2007, when he lost a race for Congress by nearly 30 points.
His boxing career
peaked at the time he began to dabble in politics. He hooked up with trainer
Freddie Roach in 2001 and the two instantly clicked, becoming one of boxing's
best fighter/trainer tandems in the history of the sport.
Pacquiao had
incredible speed and power when he met Roach in the trainer's Hollywood,
Calif., gym, but he was basically a one-handed fighter who wasn't proficient at
controling the action in the ring. Pacquiao regarded Roach as some kind of a
Zen master and dutifully worked on Roach's suggestions, dramatically improving
fight after fight from 2001 until about 2005, when it was obvious he was one of
the elite fighters in the world.
His peak came from
2008 to 2010, a stretch in which he defended his super featherweight titles and
went on to win at 135, 140, 147 and 154 pounds. In that span, he knocked out
Ricky Hatton, stopped Oscar De La Hoya and moved up to super welterweight to
defeat Antonio Margarito at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
He had a strange
dip at the end of his career. Known for his blazing speed and punching power,
he failed to score a stoppage over his last six-plus years, in which he fought
11 times and was 8-3 in that stretch.
Roach attributed
this to Pacquiao's religious beliefs and the fact that he became a born again
Christian, but it's almost impossible to know if that had any impact upon his
performance.
Unquestionably,
he's bound for the International Boxing Hall of Fame and should be elected the
first time he is eligible.
He's among the
greatest ever to have fought, though how high he deserves to be ranked all-time
will be the subject of bitter dispute between his critics and his legion of
supporters
Source: sports.yahoo
Source: sports.yahoo
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