Emmanuel "Manny" Dapidran Pacquiao (born December 18, 1978), is a Filipino world champion professional boxer. At 32 he was elected to the Philippine House of Representatives. He has also been involved in basketball, acting, and singing.

He is the first and only eight-division world champion, in which he has won ten world titles, as well as the first to win the lineal championship in four different weight classes. According to Forbes, he was the 2nd highest paid athlete in the world as of 2015.

He was named "Fighter of the Decade" for the 2000s (decade) by the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA), World Boxing Councel (WBC) and World Boxing Organization (WBO). He is also a three-time The Ring and BWAA "Fighter of the Year," winning the award in 2006, 2008, and 2009, and the Best Fighter Espy Award in 2009 and 2011.

He is currently ranked number eight on the Ring and the longest reigning top-10 on the pound-for-pound list. BoxRec ranks him as the greatest Filipino fighter of all-time. He was long rated as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world by some sporting news and boxing websites, including ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Sporting Life, Yahoo Sports, About.com, BoxRec and The Ring from his climb to Lightweight until his losses in 2012.

Early and personal life

Pacquiao was born on December 17,1978, in Kibawe, Bukidnon, Philippines. He is the son of Rosalio Pacquiao and Dionesia Dapidran-Pacquiao. His parents separated when he was in sixth grade, after his mother discovered that his father was living with another woman. He is the fourth among six siblings.

Pacquiao vs Morales I

On March 19, 2005, Pacquiao moved up in super featherweight, or junior lightweight, division of 130 pounds, in order to fight another Mexican legend and three division world champion Erik Morales for the vacant WBC International and vacant IBA Super Featherweight titles. The fight took place at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas. In this fight, Pacquiao sustained a cut over his right eye from an accidental clash of heads in the fifth round. He lost the twelve round match by a unanimous decision from the judges. All three scorecards read 115-113 for Morales.

On September 10, 2005, Manny Pacquiao knocked out in six rounds Hector Velazquez at Staples Center in Los Angeles to capture the WBC International Super Featherweight title, which he went on to defend five times. On the same day, his rival, Erik Morales, fought Zahir Raheem and lost via unanimous decision.

Pacquiao vs Morales II

Despite Morales's loss to Raheem, Pacquiao got matched up against Morales in a rematch which took place on January 21, 2006 at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. During the fight, Morales escaped being knocked down twice, once in the second round by holding onto the ropes and once in the sixth by falling on the referee. Pacquiao eventually knocked Morales out in the tenth, the first time Morales was knocked out in his boxing career.

Pacquiao vs Morales III

Pacquiao and Morales fought a third time (with the series tied 1-1) on November 18, 2006. Witnessed by a near record crowd of 18,276, the match saw Pacquiao defeat Morales via a third round knockout at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. After the Pacquiao vs Morales rubber match, Bob Arum, Pacquiao's main promoter, announced that Manny had returned his signing bonus back to Golden Boy Promotions, signaling intentions to stay with Top Rank. This prompted golden Boy Promotions to sue Pacquiao over breach of contract.