Pacquiao is boxing's most decorated champion having won 12 world titles in eight weight classes and is now hoping to become the Philippines president in 2022.

Manny Pacquiao is a Filipino former professional boxer and politician who is currently serving as senator for the Philippines after being elected for a six-year term in 2016.

He retired from boxing in 2021 following defeat to Yordenis Ugas, quitting the sport as the oldest welterweight champion in boxing history after defeating Keith Thurman via split-decision in Las Vegas.

Regarded as one of the greatest fighters of all time, "Pacman" is boxing's only eight-division champion and has won the most major world titles - 12 - and is the only five-division lineal titlist.

Pacquiao - trained by Freddie Roach for most of his career - is one of the most lucrative fighters to have laced a pair of gloves up with his pay-per-view bout against Floyd Mayweather being the highest-grossing gate for a boxing event with gross sales of more than $72million.

In his 25 PPV bouts in the United States, Pacquiao has generated $1.25 billion. Up to now, Pacquiao has won multiple awards, including Fighter of the Decade by the Boxing Writers Association of America.

Ring Magazine has named him Fight of the Year on three occasions (2006, 2008 and 2009) while ESPY has also given him the nod in 2009 and 2011.

Thurman, Ugas and retirement

In July 2019, Pacquiao challenged Thurman for his WBA world junior middleweight title at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Thurman was undefeated from his 30 fights going into this one, winning 22 of them via inside the distance.

"One Time" was promoted from interim to outright world champion in January 2015. "Pacman" started off strong and downed Thurman with a knockdown inside the first round.

The champion returned to his feet, but the crowd were well in favour of fan favourite Pacquiao, who controlled it from here on in.

Most onlookers had the fight in his favour as the fight came to a close at the end of the 12th round.

The southpaw got the win via split-decision with two judges having it 115-112 in his favour, and the final judge scoring it 114-113 for Thurman.

Pacquiao was expected to face Errol Spence Jr. in August 2021 only for the American to pull out one week before with an eye injury. Cuba's Ugas was his replacement for the Las Vegas showdown with the WBA welterweight title on the line.

The greatest hits: Barrera, Morales and De La Hoya

Pacquiao started his career solely fighting in his home country the Philippines, before branching out into America when he reached world level.

In only his second fight in the USA, he fought Mexican legend Marco Antonio Barrera for the Ring Magazine world featherweight championship.

Despite being down in the opening round because of a slip, Pacquiao dominated proceedings, knocking Barrera down in the third and penultimate round, where the referee halted the fight.

The two met again four years later for the WBO international junior lightweight title. It was a cracking fight that Pacquiao eventually won via unanimous decision.

Pacquiao has also had a three-fight series with Erik Morales. Morales won the first one via unanimous decision before Pacquiao gained revenge to retain his WBC International title twice in 2006, winning both fights via TKO and KO.

After retiring Oscar De La Hoya, he faced Britain's Ricky Hatton in 2009. Hatton was an underdog going in and it was proved to be the right call by bookmakers with the Mancunian getting annihilated by Pacquaio.

Hatton was down twice in round one before being knocked out unconscious in the following round.

Pacquiao faced Puerto Rican legend Miguel Cotto for his WBO world welterweight championship. This could have been a thrilling back and forth clash, but Pacquiao dominated.

Cotto was knocked down in the third and fourth round before the referee finally stopped it in the final round.

This win was Pacquiao's seventh world title win in as many weight classes.

A four-fight rivalry with Juan Manuel Marquez is one of boxing's great battles. Their first showdown, which was a featherweight unification bout, ended in a thrilling draw.

Four years later, the duology was for the WBO junior lightweight title and it saw Pacquiao grab the bragging rights via split-decision.

The trilogy contest was a controversial victory once again for "Pacman" who won via majority decision on the scorecards.

In a surprising turn of events, Marquez won the fourth and final instalment with a brutal knockout in round six. 

Fight of the Century

Despite fans wanting this fight to take place years before, they had to wait until 2015 for it to happen. At this point, both fighters were arguably past the peak of their careers.

This was still the most eagerly anticipated fight in recent memory, with boxing fans all around the world chomping at the bit to see "The Fight of the Century".

With a fight of this magnitude, there was a lot of hype in the build-up with fans curious to see whether Pacquiao could be the man to snap Mayweather's undefeated record.

However, it was an underwhelming spectacle for fans with Mayweather delivering a masterclass, outpointing the Filipino via unanimous decision to go 48-0.

It was a huge financial success, generating the most PPVs in history with 4.6 million buys in America. The gate receipt and PPV numbers worldwide acquitted to over $410million in revenue.

This smashed the previous record which stood at around $150million created by the Mayweather-Canelo fight and the 2.48 million buys for De La Hoya-Mayweather.

It performed better than expected which was due to ticket sales, which exceeded Super Bowl XLIX.

Political career

Pacquiao's impact has spread far more than just with boxing. In October 2015, he announced that he was running to become a senator for the Philippines.

He was successful in his campaign and was elected to become a senator by the Commission on Elections in May 2016.

He has made a great impact as a senator. A lot of his focus has been placed on improving the lives of the people in the Philippines. This is especially the case since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Pacquiao teamed up with Alibaba Group co-founder Jack Ma to give some relief to people in The Philippines. The Philippine government agency - the Bureau of Customs - have helped with the release of more than 50,000 tests across the country, thanks to the help from Pacquiao and Ma.

During his time in government, Pacquiao has also aligned himself with the Duterte government, which aided with the removal of Lila de Lima from the position of Presidency in September 2016.

Manny Pacquiao's net worth

During his time as a professional boxer, Pacquiao has earned around $24million a year on average throughout his career.

He earned a career peak payday of $160million from his fight with Mayweather, and his career earnings as of 2016 passed $500million. His net worth is $220million.

Personal life

Pacquiao married Jinkee Jamora in May 1999. The couple have had five children: Emmanuel Jr (Jimuel), Michael Stephen, Mary Divine Grace (Princess), Queen Elizabeth (Queenie) and Israel.

His eldest son, Jimuel, is an amateur fighter and he won his first fight via KO in April 2019.

Pacquiao is currently living in Kiamba, Sarangani, which is his wife's hometown. The 41-year-old was raised as a Catholic growing up, but now Pacquiao is a practising Evangelical Protestant.

After his last fight, in December 2019, Pacquiao graduated from the University of Makati with a bachelor's degree in political science.