Emmanuel "Manny" Dapidran Pacquiao was born December 17, 1978) is a Filipino
professional boxer and politician. He is the first eight-division world
champion,[5] in which he has won ten world titles, as well as the first to win
the lineal championship in four different weight classes.[6] He is also the
second highest paid athlete in the world.
He was named "Fighter of the Decade" for the 2000s
(decade) by the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA), World Boxing
Council (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 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. In
April 2012, Pacquiao dropped to number two in the rankings, behind Floyd
Mayweather, Jr. However on May 7, 2012, The Ring declared the top position vacant
and jointly ranked Pacquiao and Mayweather in the number two spot.
Aside from boxing, Pacquiao has participated in acting,
music recording and politics. In May 2010, Pacquiao was elected to the House of
Representatives in the 15th Congress of the Philippines, representing the
province of Sarangani.