Manny Pacquiao

Pacquiao completed his elementary education at Saavedra Saway Elementary School in General Santos City, but dropped out of high school due to extreme poverty. At the age of 12, Pacquiao was introduced to boxing a by his maternal uncle Sardo Mejia. According to his autobiography, Pacquiao said watching Mike Tyson's defeat to James "Buster" Douglas in 1990 with his Uncle Sardo as an experience that, "changed my life forever." His early interest in combat sports was also inspired by martial-artist Bruce Lee and the boxer Muhammad Ali.

In 1990, Mejia began training his nephew in a makeshift home gym. After 6 months of training, Pacquiao began boxing in a park in General Santos eventually traveling to other cities to fight higher-ranked opponents. By age 15, he was considered the best junior boxer in the southern Philippines. At the age of 15, he moved to Manila. In January 1995, at the age of 16, he made his professional boxing debut as a junior flyweight.

Pacquiao was introduced to boxing at the age of 12 by his maternal Uncle Sardo Mejia. According to his autobiography, Pacquiao said watching Mike Tyson's defeat of James "Buster" Douglas in 1990 with his Uncle Sardo as an experience that, "changed my life forever." Mejia began training his nephew in a makeshift home gym. After 6 months of training, Pacquiao began boxing in a park in General Santos eventually traveling to other cities to fight higher-ranked opponents. By age 15, he was considered the best junior boxer in the southern Philippines. At the age of 15 he moved to Manila. In January 1995, at the age of 16, he made his professional boxing debut as a junior flyweight.

On December 4, 1998, at the age of 19, he won his first major title, the World Boxing Council (WBC) flyweight title.

Pacquiao married Jinkee Jamora on May 10, 1999. Together, they have five children, Emmanuel Jr. (Jimuel), Michael Stephen, Mary Divine Grace (Princess), Queen Elizabeth (Queenie) and Israel. His son, Jimuel, is an amateur boxer. His daughter, Queenie, was born in the United States. He resides in his hometown of General Santos City, South Cotabato, Philippines. However, as a congressman of the lone district of Sarangani, he is officially residing in Kiamba, Sarangani, the hometown of his wife.

In December 2005, Pacquiao took his first lead role in Violett Films' Lisensyadong Kamao (Licensed Fist). The film is titled so because (according to director Tony Bernal), being a boxer, Pacquiao is licensed to use his hands.

Pacquiao was named "Fighter of the Decade" for the 2000s by the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA), World Boxing Council (WBC), and World Boxing Organization (WBO). In 2006, 2008, and 2009, he was awarded Ring magazine and BWAA's Fighter of the Year, and in 2009 and 2011 he won the Best Fighter ESPY Award. BoxRec ranks him as the greatest Asian fighter of all time. In 2016, Pacquiao ranked No. 2 on ESPN's list of top pound for pound boxers of the past 25 years and he ranks No. 2 in BoxRec's ranking of the greatest pound for pound boxers of all time.

Pacquiao is a military reservist with the rank of colonel in the Reserve Force of the Philippine Army. Prior to being promoted to full colonel after finishing his General Staff Course (GSC) schooling, he held the rank of lieutenant colonel for being a member of the Philippine Congress as per the AFP's regulations for reservist officers. He first entered the army's reserve force on April 27, 2006, as a sergeant. Later, he rose to Technical Sergeant on December 1 of the same year. On October 7, 2007, he became a Master Sergeant, the highest rank for enlisted personnel. On May 4, 2009, he was given the special rank of Senior Master Sergeant and was also designated as the Command Sergeant Major of the 15th Ready Reserve Division.

A film based on Pacquiao's life, Pacquiao: The Movie, was released on June 21, 2006, featuring Filipino actor Jericho Rosales as Manny Pacquiao and was directed by Joel Lamangan. The film flopped at the box office, grossing a total of only P4,812,191 (approximately US$99,322), as confirmed by Lamangan.

In February 2007, Pacquiao took and passed a high school equivalency exam, and was awarded with a high school diploma by the Department of Education.

On February 12, 2007, Pacquiao announced his campaign for a seat in the Philippine House of Representatives to represent the 1st District of South Cotabato province running as a candidate of the Liberal Party faction under Manila mayor Lito Atienza. Pacquiao, said he was persuaded to run by the local officials of General Santos City, hoping he would act as a bridge between their interests and the national government. Ultimately Pacquiao was forced to run under the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (KAMPI), a pro-Arroyo political party by the courts. Pacquiao was defeated in the election by incumbent Rep. Darlene Antonino-Custodio of the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC), who said, "More than anything, I think, people weren't prepared to lose him as their boxing icon."

Upon the expiration of his contract with ABS-CBN, Pacquiao signed with GMA Network as an actor in September 2007. On December 17, 2007, he taped his first episode of the networks infotainment show Pinoy Records. His other projects with the network included Totoy Bato and the sitcom Show Me Da Manny in which his mother, Dionisia, also appeared.

In 2008, Pacquiao starred with Ara Mina and Valerie Concepcion in Anak ng Kumander (Child of a Commander). The movie was not a commercial success and was panned by critics.

Pacquiao has also appeared on the cover of Time magazine Asia for their November 16, 2009, issue. According to their five-page feature story, "(Pacquiao is) a fighter with enough charisma, intelligence and backstory to help rescue a sport lost in the labyrinth of pay-per-view. Global brands like Nike want him in their ads." They also added, "Pacquiao has a myth of origin equal to that of any Greek or Roman hero. He leaves the Philippines to make it even bigger, conquering the world again and again to bring back riches to his family and friends." Pacquiao became the eighth Filipino to grace the cover of the prestigious magazine, after former Philippine presidents Manuel L. Quezon, Ramon Magsaysay, Ferdinand Marcos, Corazon Aquino, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III and Filipino actress and environmentalist Chin Chin Gutierrez. Pacquiao was also featured on the cover of Reader's Digest Asia, where a seven-page story was written about the Filipino boxing superstar. The issue came out in November 2008, before Pacquiao's epic match against De La Hoya.

It was revealed following Mayweather vs. Pacquiao that Pacquiao had sustained an undisclosed injury to his right shoulder while training and that while it had healed in time for the fight, he re-injured it during the 4th round. As of 2015, Pacquiao is currently facing a lawsuit of 5 million dollars filed against him by two fans for failing to disclose the shoulder injury in the lead up to his bout with Floyd Mayweather. Pacquiao failed to disclose the injury to the Nevada State Athletic Commission in the pre-fight injury evaluation. The commission did a standard injury report with Pacquiao filling out the form saying that he had no injuries heading into the bout. Pacquiao said he had sustained the injury weeks out from the fight against Mayweather. However, after the lawsuit from the two fans was filed against him, Pacquiao has since said that he sustained the injury during the fight in which it flared up in the 3rd round. The Nevada State Athletic Commission stated at the post fight press conference that they had only just found out about Pacquiao's injury that evening at the post fight press conference. Speculation arose that the injury was an excuse for the loss to Mayweather because Pacquiao did not mention an injury in the post fight interview with Max Kellerman. Pacquiao's promoter Bob Arum stated that Pacquiao suffered the injury back in 2008, causing even more confusion as Pacquiao, now facing a lawsuit, had just previously stated that he suffered the injury during the fight.

On November 21, 2009, Pacquiao announced that he would run again for a congressional seat, but this time in Sarangani province, the hometown of his wife Jinkee. In May 2010, Pacquiao was elected to the House of Representatives in the 15th Congress of the Philippines, representing the province of Sarangani. He scored a landslide victory over the wealthy and politically well-entrenched Chiongbian clan that had been in power in the province for more than thirty years. Pacquiao got 120,052 votes while his opponent for the seat, Roy Chiongbian, got 60,899 votes.

Pacquiao starred in the superhero/comedy film entitled Wapakman, which was released on December 25, 2009, as an entry to the 2009 Metro Manila Film Festival. Like his previous films, Wapakman was not commercially successful.

On February 18, 2009, Pacquiao was conferred the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humanities (Honoris Causa) by Southwestern University (SWU) at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel & Casino in Lahug, Cebu City in recognition of his boxing achievements and humanitarian work.

Pacquiao has endorsed politicians outside the Philippines, in particular his secondary home country in the United States, as he endorsed Nevada senator Harry Reid and California governor Jerry Brown in November 2010. Pacquiao also endorsed Republican Duke Aiona for Hawaii governor in 2014.

In 2011, Pacquiao appeared on Tosh.0 in which he was paired in a fight with Daniel Tosh. It resulted in Pacquiao winning in one punch.

Pacquiao was long rated as the best active boxer in the world, pound for pound, by most sporting news and boxing websites, including ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Sporting Life, Yahoo! Sports, About.com, BoxRec and The Ring, beginning from his climb to lightweight until his losses in 2012. He is also the longest reigning top-ten active boxer on The Ring's pound for pound list from November 2003 to April 2016.

In 2013 he was re-elected to the 16th Congress of the Philippines. He ran unopposed. Additionally, his wife, Jinkee, was also elected as vice-governor of Sarangani, while his younger brother, Rogelio was defeated by incumbent Rep. Pedro Acharon of Team PNoy in second district race in South Cotabato which includes General Santos City.

On November 26, 2013, a few days after Pacquiao's victory over Brandon Ríos, the Philippine Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) issued a freeze order on all of Pacquiao's Philippine bank accounts due to his alleged failure to pay ₱2.2 billion in taxes for earnings he made in his fights in the United States from 2008 to 2009. A day after the bank account freeze, the BIR also issued an order to freeze all of Pacquiao's Philippine properties, whereupon Pacquiao presented documents to the press showing the income tax for non-resident alien payment by his promoter to the BIR's US counterpart, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), as well as a letter from Bob Arum. In April 2017, Pacquiao, now a senator, approached Philippine authorities in an attempt to settle the case. The BIR had maintained that taxes were due even if all taxes had been paid to the IRS in the first place.

On April 17, 2014, Pacquiao announced his intention to join the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) as the playing coach of Kia Motors Basketball team, an incoming expansion team for the PBA's 2014–15 season. Though he can be the head coach of the incoming team, the league's commissioner, Atty. Chito Salud, clarified that all incoming players should join the PBA draft. Pacquiao plays basketball as cross-training to keep himself in shape. He previously played in the semi-professional basketball league, Liga Pilipinas, for the MP-Gensan Warriors, a team that he also owns. He made his debut in the Smart-Liga Pilipinas Conference II on January 16, 2009.

On July 9, 2014, he submitted his application for the upcoming rookie draft to the commissioner's office. His camp also hopes that the board of governors "respect" his request to be not drafted until Kia's turn.

Pacquiao has generated approximately 20.1 million in pay-per-view (PPV) buys and $1.2 billion in revenue from his 25 PPV bouts. According to Forbes, he was the second highest paid athlete in the world in 2015.

On October 5, 2015, Pacquiao formally declared that he was running for senator under the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) party of vice-president Jejomar Binay. On May 19, 2016, Pacquiao was formally elected as a senator by the Commission on Elections. Pacquiao garnered over 16 million votes, landing 7th among 12 new members of the Senate.

On February 8, 2015, Pacquiao tallied his first career point after making a shot in the free-throw on a match they won against the then-Purefoods Star Hotshots. On October 25, 2015, Pacquiao made his first field goal in the PBA in a 108–94 loss against the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters.

Another film, based on Pacquiao's early life in boxing, Kid Kulafu, was released on April 15, 2015, featuring young actor Robert Villar as Emmanuel "Manny" Pacquiao. The film dramatizes the life of the Filipino boxing superstar during his childhood.

As a senator, Pacquiao has supported bringing back capital punishment in the Philippines. He has aligned himself with the Duterte government, facilitating on 18 September 2016 the ouster of Leila de Lima from the chairmanship of the Senate Justice committee and critiqued de Lima's presentation on 21 September of the same year of an alleged member of the Davao Death Squad. He has been vocal about De Lima's alleged links with alleged druglord Kerwin Espinosa, an allegation that led to De Lima's arrest and detention. De Lima has been a member of the opposition in the Senate of the 17th and 18th Congress of the Philippines and a critic of Duterte, investigating Duterte of suspected extrajudicial killings in his War on Drugs prior to her arrest. Meanwhile, in another Senate hearing, Pacquiao defended then-Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte from allegations of having a part, along with his alleged drinking buddy Charlie Tan and Kenneth Dong, in a 2017 seized ₱6.4-billion shipment of illegal drugs from Xiamen, China into the Philippines.

On August 21, 2016, Pacquiao scored a career-high four points in a 97–88 victory against the Blackwater Elite, also sinking the first three-point field goal in his career.

In February 2016, Pacquiao, in a video statement posted by TV5, made a comment on the issue of same-sex marriage. Pacquiao, in vernacular, described people in same-sex marriages as behaving worse than animals because, he said, animals generally do not have same-sex mating. LGBT celebrities including comedian Vice Ganda, singer Aiza Seguerra, TV host Boy Abunda and the party-list Ladlad criticized the statements of the senatorial candidate. Pacquiao later apologized and stated that while, as a Christian, he is still against same-sex marriage, which he said is against Biblical teachings, he did not condemn gay people themselves. Nike ended their longtime partnership with Pacquiao, stating his comments against gay people were abhorrent. The Grove at Farmers Market in Los Angeles also banned Pacquiao from the shopping mall.

In 2017, when Pacquiao's three-year rookie deal as a player with the Picanto expired, the team didn't renew his contract again. Speculations swirled about Pacquiao possibly signing with the Blackwater Elite after its owner Dioceldo Sy said in an interview that he offered Pacquiao a roster spot and a coaching job. Four weeks later, his coaching contract with the Kia Picanto also expired, effectively making him available in the free agent market both as a coach and a player.

In October 2018, Pacquiao signed with Al Haymon's Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) promotion and currently holds the WBA (Super) welterweight title since July 2019.

In 2018, Pacquiao officially announced his retirement from the league.

On December 11, 2019, Pacquiao graduated from University of Makati with a bachelor's degree in political science; majoring in local government administration through the Expanded Tertiary Education Equivalency and Accreditation Program (ETEEAP) of the Philippine Councilors League-Legislative Academy (PCCLA) which allows qualified Filipinos to complete a collegiate-level education via informal education system.

Manny Pacquiao has an amateur record of 60–4 and a record of 62–7–2 as a professional, with 39 wins by knockout. World-renowned boxing expert and historian Bert Sugar ranked Pacquiao as the greatest southpaw fighter of all time. In 2020, Pacquiao topped the Ranker's list of best boxers of the 21st century.

On March 4, 2020, Pacquiao hosted a party at his residence, the attendees of which included fellow Senator Koko Pimentel. Pimentel was later diagnosed with COVID-19, prompting the Dasmarinas Village barangay council to order Pacquiao to self-isolate at his residence, declaring him a 'person under monitoring'.