Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao born December 17, 1978, and better known as Manny Pacquiao, is a Filipino boxer and politician. He is an eight division world champion the first boxer in history to win ten world titles in eight different weight divisions. He is also the first boxer in history to win the lineal championship in four different weight classes. He was named "Fighter of the Decade" for the 2000's by the Boxer's 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 WBC Super Welterweight World Champion and 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, 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, becoming the only active boxer to become a congressman in the Philippines.
As a professional boxer, his first real break in the world boxing arena came in June 23, 2001, against former IBF World Super Bantamweight champion Lehlohonolo Ledwaba. Pacquiao stepped into the fight as a late replacement on two weeks' notice but won the fight by technical knockout and won the Internationl Boxing Federation (IBF) Junior Featherweight World Title belt, his second major boxing world title.
