Monday, June 29, 2009

Who Really Is Manny Pacquiao?

Emannuel Dapidran Pacquiao or famously called Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao can be described in three sentences:

1. A man who refuses to surrender to poverty.
2. A man who uses Great Faith In God as main weapon towards success.
3. A man who may eventually become a distinguished politician and businessman.


A man who refuses to surrender to poverty

It is known to everybody that Manny Pacquiao comes from a poor family in General Santos City with only his mother Aling Dionisia as the main provider. Aling Dionisia, single-handedly raised her children to support family needs. With this situation, many, if not everybody, would think that a good life for Aling Dionisia and her children (including Manny) is nothing but a dream. But for Manny, poverty is only in a person’s mind. For him, surrendering to poverty would mean being poor your whole life. But instead of surrendering, Manny charted his future by fighting poverty. And you know what happens next.


A man who uses Great Faith In God as weapon towards success

In fighting against poverty, Manny used his great faith in God as the main weapon and boxing as the way to achieve success. He is a very religious man and brings his faith everywhere anytime. In every activity he does, he always put God ahead of it. On the day of and after every fight, a mass is celebrated at the room of the hotel he stays. Just before and after every fight, Manny finds time to go to one corner of the ring and pray. And just when every round starts, Manny does a sign of the cross. Manny’s great faith persuaded God to be on his side.

With God in his side, Manny beat all the odds like: being an unknown fighter, he knocked out Chachai Saskul of Thailand to capture the Championship belt; being regarded as an underdog, tune-up fight for the Champion Lehehonolo Ledwaba, he scored a resounding upset by knocking out Ledwaba in 5 rounds; also being regarded as underdog against Marco Antonio Barrera, he annihilated the Mexican ledgend in 11 rounds; being also branded as mismatch when fighting the bigger and believed to be more skillful Oscar Dela Hoya, again he (Manny Pacquiao) dominated Dela Hoya to surrender after 8 rounds of boxing and eventually retired. The lates odds that Manny faced is the ridicule from the trainer of Ricky Hatton (Floyd Mayweather Snr.) and some jabbing words from Hatton himself, but he returned returned the favor by knocking out Hatton in 2 rounds. These are just a handful of the many odds the Pacman surmounted using God as his weapon.

With all these, Manny then became the number one pound-for-pound boxer in the world. But not only that, Manny also was declared as one of the most influential and popular figure in his homeland (the Philippines).

Some boxing analysts even said that, because Manny continuously gave viewers surprises and excitement during fights, by unexpectedly beating the almost impossible and/or inconceivable opponents, makes him a highly – prized pay-per-view fighter.

He is now very popular and exciting such that everybody (commentators, publishers, writers, haters, etc) would want to ride in order to make money. But his greatness doesn’t stops here.


A man who may eventually become a distinguished politician and businessman


After being very successful (fame and money) in boxing, Manny now wants to give back what God gave to him. He wants to do this by serving the people faithfully through a) being a politician where he can provide the much needed services to the grassroots levels of his hometown, and b) by being a businessman to extend basic service to those who need.

For being a business man, he is now using the money derived from his winnings in boxing to embark a vast Real Estate Development Project which would benefit not only the people of the General Santos City and Sarangani, but also the nearby residents in the Mindanao area.

For being a politician, he will be running for congressman in Sarangani.

Accomplishing these new endeavors will complete Manny’s dream of giving back what God gave to him. But again, many are belittling him (Manny Pacquiao) as, aside from lacking the educational diploma, he also doesn’t have impressive credentials in politics and businesses. So, many are again placing Manny as underdog in this fight.

But remember, God is in his side. So, just like boxing, let’s just pray for his success and watch how he will, again, do the unexpected in these new fields. As a stock market trader, I will say “I am bullish about Manny Pacquiao’ and I’ll bet he would succeed.

That’s Manny Pacquiao.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I very well agree with you. Pacquiao's greatness is due to his humility - the ability to know and admit to oneself that there are bigger, greater and more important things than himself like friends, family, country and God.

darves said...

To: Bar M. Farmero

Yes, that is why Manny keeps on winning. This can be attributed much on the traits you mentioned in your comment. If he changes or lost focus on even one of these traits, the future results would greatly change. Thanks for your comment - by Darves.

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