Manny Means Business

Champion boxer Manny Pacquiao has always had a business plan: Fight my way out of poverty

by Jim Plouffe

The first thing you notice when entering the dressing room of Manny Pacquiao is just how crowded it is. The room, right across the hall from where the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world has just finished taping his Filipino television show ‘’Pinoy Records'’ is spartan, basically furnished with people. The next thing you notice is that the current World Boxing Council Lightweight Champion seems to get lost in this sea of people. His agents, family, handlers and just hangers-on, are all better dressed, louder and more domineering. It takes a few seconds to even pick him out.

It’s not until Manny tells one of them to ‘’take the journalist to the other room'’ and then saunters in a few minutes later, laying his hands – complete with several diamondd adorned fingers – on the grimy table that his presence is felt.Here are the knuckles that have knocked out 35 opponents, including American David Diaz last June to win the Lightweight title. Here is the fearless dynamo, the Mexicutioner, the Destroyer, Pacman, the People’s Champ, a man so wild in the ring that he’s constantly had to move up weight classes just to find boxers who can endure his lightning-fast punches. This 169-centimetre-tall man is a weapon, and the sparkle in his eye reveals that he knows it.

But it’s not until he tells one of his handlers to ‘’be quiet, I can speak for myself,'’ that it becomes truly obvious that Manny Pacquiao really means business.

It seems the only time you’ve taken a real beating is when you went for public office.
It was not the right time to run for office because I was in my prime in boxing. [The Filipino people] are looking at me as a role model in boxing. The time has come now. I think they will want me because I have a big heart.
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