| Title: | WBC Int'l Super Featherweight Champion | |
| Record: | W 44 (35 ko's) | L 3 | D 2 | |
| Age: | 28 | |
| Reach: | 68" | |
| Height: | 5'6"½ | |
| Stance: | Southpaw | |
| 'Fighting Barrera is a career highlight for me.' | ||
Manny Pacquiao has learned a very important lesson: He may have knocked out 35 opponents in the boxing ring, but he could not necessarily knock out even just one opponent in the political arena.
It was a lesson that cost him millions of pesos, just so he could be sure that Darlene Antonino-Custodio could beat him in the General Santos City congressional elections last May.
His fans, many of whom objected to his political foray, heaved a sigh of relief: They wanted him pure, untainted by politics. They wanted Pacquiao remain what he has always been – one of the most exciting fighters the world has ever seen.
So now he's going back into the ring, to face Mexican Marco Antonio Barrera, the same man he defeated via TKO back in November 2003. It was a victory that fans consider the key point that made "Pacquiao" a much-repeated name in the boxing world.
It's the reigning WBC International Super Featherweight champ vs the former WBC World Super Featherweight champ.
Barrera was very insistent to get his night in the ring with Pacquiao. At one point, he even said that if he couldn't fight Pacquiao then he might just as well retire – and he says now that he's ready to retire after this fight, whatever the outcome.
Pacquiao has obviously become such a formidable fighter that Barrera considers him a fitting challenge with which to cap an impressive career.
Pacquiao has come a long way since starting his professional boxing career in 1995 at 106 pounds at the age of 16. His early fights usually took place in small venues and were shown on Vintage Sports' Blow by Blow evening boxing show.
His first professional fight was a four-round bout against Edmund Ignacio on January 22, 1995, which Pacquiao won via decision, thus becoming an instant star of the program.
In just a few years, Pacquiao went on to become a three-division champ – featherweight, bantamweight, and flyweight. Hes rated no. 1 by the WBC, no. 3 by the IBF, and no. 1 by the WBO.
In Mexico, Pacquiao is known as "Republica Enemy No.1" and "verdugo de mexicanos" because he has beaten up some of the best Mexican fighters since 2003 - Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera, Oscar Larios, Emanuel Lucero, and Hector Velazquez.
After beating Barrera in 2003, he managed to get a drawn match against Juan Manuel Marquez in 2004. Many Pacquiao fans considered the decision questionable because Pacquiao sent Marquez to the canvas three times in the first round.
Pacquiao, born in Bukidnon but raised in General Santos City, was named 2006 Fighter of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of America.
He got the same honor from The Ring magazine for his two spectacular knockout victories of Mexican icon and three-division champion Erik Morales and his round unanimous 12-round decision over former world champion and current No. 1 contender Oscar Larios.
Since 1928, when the award was first given, The Ring has honored only six other fighters below the lightweight division - Henry Armstrong (1937), Willie Pep (1945), Carlos Zarate (1977), Salvador Sanchez (1981), Michael Carbajal (1993), Paulie Ayala (1999). - GMANews.TV
