5 fights that defined Manny Pacquiao's career

Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao born December 17, 1978), also known as Manny Pacquiao, is a Filipino professional boxer and politician. He is an eight-division world champion, the first boxer in history to win ten world titles, the first to win in eightweight divisions, and the first to win the lineal championship in four different weight classes. He was named "Fighter of the Decade" for the 2000s by the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA). He is also a three-time The Ring and BWAA "Fighter of the Year", winning the award in 2006, 2008, and 2009.

Currently, Pacquiao is the WBO Welterweight World Champion. He is also currently rated as the "number one" pound-for-pound best boxer in the world by most sporting news and boxing websites, including The Ring, BoxRec.com, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, NBC Sports, Yahoo! Sports,Sporting Life and About.com.

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. He is the only active boxer to become a congressman in the Philippines

But with this scintillating career, let us look back to the fights that perhaps boosted up his career from being an ordinary boxer into one of the sport's greatest ever. Here are the top five from my list.

Rank 5: Pacquiao - Morales III

Pacquiao and Morales fought a third time (with the series tied 1–1) on Nov. 18, 2006. Witnessed by a near record crowd of 18,276, the match saw Pacquiao defeat Morales via a third-round knockout at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. This was the last installment of the Pacquiao - Morales Trilogy making their rivalry as one of the most sought-after match ups of all time.

The catch weight was an issue with this fight since Morales was fighting at a higher division that time. Morales had difficulties in getting into the catch weight and ended up dehydrated before the fight. The dehydrated Morales was caught hopeless against the quicker Pacquiao. This ended up a great Trilogy between two great fighters. This was perhaps the end for Morales, but this was just the beginning for Pacquiao. 

Winning this trilogy with Morales, more opportunities opened up for Pacquiao in the Super Featherweight Division.

Rank 4: Pacquiao - Morales II

On March 19, 2005, Pacquiao moved up in super featherweight or junior lightweight division of 130 pounds, in order to fight another Mexican legend and three-division world champion Érik Morales for vacant WBC International and IBA Super Featherweight Titles. The fight took place at the MGM Grand Las Vegas. In this fight, Pacquiao sustained a cut over his right eye from a from an accidental clash of heads in the fifth round. He lost the twelve-round match by a unanimous decision from the judges. All three scorecards read 115–113 for Morales.

Pacquiao got matched up against Morales in a rematch which took place on January 21, 2006 at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. During the fight, Morales escaped being knocked down twice, once in the second round by holding onto the ropes, and once in the sixth by falling on the referee. Pacquiao eventually knocked Morales out in the tenth, the first time Morales was knocked out in his boxing career.

This fight regained Pacquiao's reputation as one of the sport's emerging superstars.

Rank 3: Pacquiao - Marquez II

A controversial win but a career defining one.

On March 15, 2008, in a rematch against Juan Manuel Márquez called "Unfinished Business" after a controversial draw in their first encounter, Pacquiao won via split decision this time. The fight was held at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. With the victory, Pacquiao won the WBC Super Featherweight and The Ring Junior Lightweight World Titles (as well as the lineal junior lightweight title), making him the first Filipino and Asian to become a four-division world champion, a fighter who wonworld titles in four different weight divisions. The fight was a close hard fought battle, during which both fighters received cuts. Throughout the fight Márquez landed the most punches at a higher percentage; however, the decisive factor proved to be a third-round knockdown, wherein Márquez was floored by a Pacquiao left hook.At the end of the fight, the judges' scores were 115–112 for Pacquiao, 115–112 for Márquez, and 114–113 for Pacquiao.

After the fight, Pacman intended to move up to the lightweight division to challenge David Díaz, the reigning WBC Lightweight World Champion at that time. And with that move of weight division, Pacquiao started dominating unchartered territories. 

Rank 2: De La Hoya - Pacquiao

The Dream Match.

Pacquiao defeated De La Hoya via technical knockout when De La Hoya decided not to continue with the fight before the start of the ninth round.

Despite no title belts being disputed, the bout received a lot of publicity since the two boxers were decorated, with Pacquiao being the current number one pound for pound boxer in the world as judged by The Ring, and a five-time world champion in five different weight divisions (Pacquiao was the reigning WBC lightweight champion at the time of the bout). Meanwhile, De La Hoya was an Olympic gold medalist and past holder of 10 world titles in six weight divisions.

Pacquiao had to step up two weight divisions (from lightweight), and De La Hoya had to go down one weight division (from light middleweight), to be eligible for the bout's welterweight division.

On December 10, 2008, HBO announced that the fight generated 1.25 million PPV buys totaling more than $70 million in PPV revenue. This fight was only the fourth non-heavyweight bout to have more than one million buys at that time, along with De La Hoya–Mayweather Jr. (2.4 million buys) in May 2007, De La Hoya–Hopkins (1 million buys) in 2004, and De La Hoya–Trinidad (1.4 million buys) in 1999.

The PPV card was the highest-grossing PPV event of the year in North America, ahead of UFC 91 (Randy Couture vs. Brock Lesnar) and WrestleMania XXIV.

The fight is notable for propelling Manny Pacquiao to full-blown superstar status in much of the western world (mostly in The United States), as Oscar De La Hoya symbolically "passed the torch", so to speak, to Pacquiao.

Rank 1: Barrera - Pacquiao I 

The fight that shocked the world. The fight that started the Pacman Juggernaut.

On November 15, 2003, Pacquiao faced Marco Antonio Barrera at the Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas, in a fight that many consider to have defined his career. Pacquiao, perhaps an unknown boxer to American fans and who was fighting at featherweight for the first time, brought his power with him and defeated the well established Barrera via technical knockout in the eleventh round and won The Ring Featherweight World Title (as well as the lineal featherweight champion), making him the first Filipino and Asian to become a three-division world champion, a fighter who won world titles in three different weight divisions. This win opened up the doors for Pacquiao and the rest is history.

Ken Aldren Usman

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