It’s always astonishing looking back at the great career of Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao.
A fighter who moved up from the minimumweight division all the way to junior middleweight and collected 8 different weight division titles in the process (105 lbs to 154 lbs).
It’s hard to believe a man who only stands 5 foot 5 inches tall and started off his boxing career at the smallest weight class in the sport would rise the division and make his home 147 pounds.
He turned pro at only 16 years of age and is still fighting today at 40 at the highest level, against much younger opposition.
The WBA “regular” welterweight champion arrived in Las Vegas on Monday and Tuesday night he answered questions from the media about his January 19th Showtime PPV fight against Adrien Broner.
During the scrum Pacquiao revealed an interesting story about his professional boxing debut – he lied about his age and his weight.
The required age limit to turn pro in the Philippines was 18 years old, he told the person handling the registration he was 18 and his birth certificate was in Mindanao.
Pacquiao insisted that his birth certificate would arrive soon by mail but he needed the license immediately because his fight was coming up on January 22, 1995 and it was December, the lady believed the 16-year-old Pacquiao’s story and gave him his license.
The teenage Pacman wasn’t in the clear, he still had one more problem, the weight limit for minimumweight was 105 pounds and he only weighed 98 pounds, so to make the weight he stuffed weights in his trunks and weighed in at the limit.
The year he turned pro was 1995 and he fought 10 times that year.
On Saturday night, Pacquiao’s fight with Adrien Broner will be his 70th professional fight.
