Manny Pacquiao: Thriller from Manila

• Last Updated: November 20. 2009 11:11PM UAE / November 20. 2009 7:11PM GMT

Kagan McLeod for The National

He has reignited boxing, inspired millions of Filipinos and on Friday received a hero’s welcome as he flew home from his latest title win. Ron Borges profiles a power in the land.

Manny Pacquiao is being hailed these days as the saviour of a sport and a nation. In both cases, this may not be an exaggeration.

The Filipino boxer, who stands at 5ft 6½in, is universally regarded as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, a point he emphatically demonstrated last weekend by destroying Miguel Cotto, the world welterweight champion, in Las Vegas. At the same time as snatching a record seventh world title, he earned himself a guaranteed US$13 million (Dh48m) pay packet.

Bob Arum, the promoter, believes Pacquiao – known by the nickname Pac-Man – is the one boxer responsible for a resurrection of the long-dormant sport.

Even if this is true, and in boxing you never know for sure what is true, it pales in comparison with how he is viewed by the people of the Philippines. To them he approaches the status of deity.

Police have for years claimed that crime in the country drops to virtually zero whenever Pacquiao’s fights are on television. And during what became a one-sided 12th-round technical knockout of Cotto, shooting between army troops and Abu Sayyaf rebels in the south of the country actually stopped, according to a government spokesman.

All this simply adds to his status in the Philippines where he is seen as a humble superstar who gives away thousands of dollars each year to help his fellow countrymen cope with grinding poverty.

It was into such destitution that Pacquiao was born 30 years ago. On the back streets of General Santos City on the southern island of Mindanao, Pacquiao grew up selling flowers to help keep his family in food. Like many of his countrymen, he had no shoes, little formal education and no future until he fled home at 14 after his often-absent father came and ate the family dog.

That is a story Pacquiao no longer likes to tell but it has been confirmed in many corners during the years in which he rose from a 106lb fighter to someone who has won world titles at flyweight, super bantamweight, featherweight, super featherweight, lightweight, light welterweight and welterweight.

Pacquiao is an unusual blend of geniality outside the ring and ferocity in it. He seldom says a bad word about anyone, including his opponents, yet once he is unleashed on them his willingness to break their spirit and destroy them is awe-inspiring.

He has a powerful left hand, sharp jab and a sweeping right hook he developed at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, under the tutelage of Freddie Roach, three times Trainer of the Year.

Coupled with unusual hand speed and agility and an ardent desire to engage in hand-to-hand combat at the pealing of a ringside bell, Manny Pacquiao has become not only the best fighter in the world but the most popular.

But the popularity he enjoys is a double-edged sword. While it has made him wealthy beyond any dreams he could have had as a street urchin – he now shares a sprawling mansion in General Santos City with his wife Jinkee and their four children – it comes with a feeling of obligation to his many countrymen trapped in poverty. It is a responsibility he does not take lightly. “I fight for the people,” he said recently. “I want to please them and give them hope. I’m fighting for my country.”

While his popularity has allowed him to branch out into music, television and film – he has had several hit singles, regular television appearances and is said to be in talks with Sylvester Stallone about a possible US film project – his sense of obligation has thrown him in to the political ring. In 2007 he ran for Congress and, although losing, intends to try again next year.

President Gloria Arroyo, whom he supports, shrugged off his electoral defeat saying she felt the country had still won because, for the time being, Pacquiao served it better in his position as international sporting hero and inspiration to a people sadly in need of it. After his latest victory, she said: “I hope we can all learn from his experiences so that, together, we can all move forward as a nation. He is an inspiration to Filipinos around the world.”

There are many reasons for that, chief among them being his phenomenal success since meeting Roach eight years ago. At the time Pacquiao was a little known fighter who couldn’t find a trainer. He came into Roach’s gym and asked if he would work the mitts with him. Roach claims after one round he turned to one of his assistants and said, “This guy can fight!”

Roach has been with Pacquiao ever since and they have formed a bond well beyond the norm in boxing. Pacquiao calls his trainer “master” as a mark of respect. Since their union, Pacquiao has won 18 bouts, lost one and drawn two, with Roach in his corner for every one of those world title victories.

Along the way Pacquiao has had 50 professional wins, 38 of them as knockouts, and has given away so much money that Bob Arum fears he will have to fight until he is 50. He supports a disparate entourage of 20 or so aides, many of whom have bizarre duties – including helping the boxer cut up his meat at mealtimes. One is even employed to stand at the bottom of stairwells to catch Pacquiao, in case the fighter falls. Pacquiao also hands out financial help to any troubled Filipino he meets along the way.

He has also launched a foundation that shipped truckloads of food to victims of September’s Typhoon Ondoy after he took a break from training for the Cotto fight and saw for himself the havoc it had wrought outside Manila.

For all his success in the ring, it seems it is as a beacon of hope that Manny Pacquiao has accomplished the most. A week before the Cotto fight, he became the first Asian athlete on the cover of the Asian edition of Time magazine and the headline that accompanied his cover photo read “The Great Hope.”

That is what he has become for boxing and for his country, and he is rightfully proud of both. He has featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Sports Illustrated and is seen in the press as almost a holy man of warfare, a fistic shaman who has come to save a sport and a nation.

“Manny’s a throwback,” Roach said. “He’s like a Henry Armstrong type. You don’t have fighters like that today that move up in weight like this to win championships in all these different weight divisions.

“He’s carrying his punch and his power with him along with his speed. He’s passing people like Sugar Ray Leonard, who was a six-time world champion. He’s on a level of the top five fighters of all time.

“Even Mike Tyson didn’t have the drawing power that Manny has right now. When Manny arrives, people swarm to try and touch him.”

His charm is that while he appears unbeatable in the ring, he remains unchanged outside it. He will sign autographs for fans until his right hand grows so weary he has to use his left.

“I’m confident in my ability and I thank God for it,” he said last week. “I always believe in my power.”

So do his sport and his country.

* The National