This is a guest post from a friend of mind and a fellow Triond.com contributor – Unofre Pili.

“Anyone will succeed in whatever field of endeavor in life by acquiring the same virtues and character that boxing world champions do”, Pacquiao once remarked.

Born of typical poverty-stricken Filipino family, Manny Pacquiao abandoned his elementary school when his father eloped with another woman, forcing the schoolboy to abandon his studies to help out his mother support the deserted family. He peddled breads and homemade doughnuts most of the days in the streets of General Santos City, Philippines – his hometown, and at times he had to brave the excruciating heat of the Philippine sun in order to sold out his poor merchandise.

When not peddling he would wander around neighboring villages looking for boxing matches during town fiestas for a reward of around $ 3.0 for the winner and $2.0 for the loser. Win or lose, Manny would return home with his reward intact and turned it over to his mother for rice and fish for a good meal together with his siblings.

Manny, however kept on winning his fights that it did not take long for boxing aficionados of this maritime city in Southern Philippines to take notice of his boxing talent. His agility and power that kept on knocking out his opponents enamored many boxing personalities. Invited by one of them that he would be brought to the capital city of Manila to hone his sport, he did not hesitate and eagerly asked permission of his mother. Mother Dionisia, a pious woman coaxed her son that she delivered on December 17,1978 instead for the priesthood, and though a religious boy himself, Manny refused until he sailed one day for Manila without the poor old woman’s consent for she was adamant as most mothers in the world in disallowing their sons from joining the brutal, yet honorable sport of boxing.
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