Philippine SPORTS News

PROFILE
Name: Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao
Alias: Pac Man, The Destroyer
Birth Date: December 17, 1978
Birth Place: Sarangani, Phillippines
Residence: General Santos, Phillippines
Nationality: Filipino
Age: 31
Height: 5' 6½"
Reach: 67"
Stance or Style: Southpaw
Weight category: Light Welterweight
Trained by: Freddie Roach
Manager: Shelly Finkel
Global ID: 006129
US ID: 015582

Strengths:
- Lefthander with good skills, speed and movement
- Tremendous punching power in both hands
- Shown great improvement in his right hook
- Physically strong
- Always in top condition
- Experienced against top opposition

Regional and Minor Titles

* OPBF flyweight champion (1997-98)
* WBC International super bantamweight champion (1999-01)
* WBC International super featherweight title (2005-present (Nov 2007))

World Titles

- WBO Welterweight Champion
- Reigning IBO, RING Junior Welterweight Champion
- WBC Lightweight Champion, 2008-2009
- WBC, RING Super Featherweight Champion, 2008
- RING Featherweight Champion, 2003 - 2005
- IBF Super Bantamweight Champion, 2001 - 2004
- WBC Flyweight Champion, 1998 - 1999

Other Title Claim

Pacquiao was recognized as champion at featherweight by The Ring magazine. The website, Cyber Boxing Zone, also recognizes this claim. Pacquiao vacated his featherweight claim, after his loss to Erik Morales, expressing a desire to continue fighting at 130 pounds.

Awards and Recognition

* 2006 ESPN "Fighter of the Year"
* 2006 Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year
* 2006 Boxing Writers Association of America Fighter of the Year
* 2007 World Boxing Hall of Fame "Fighter of the Year"

Amateur and Personal Background:
Manny was born in General Santos City, Philippines...he has an older sister, Zedra, and two younger brothers - Bobby, who is also a professional boxer, and Rogel.

Their parents were vegetable farmers, and are now estranged...Manny built a house for his mother close to his own...his father still lives in the mountains.

When Manny was 12, he moved to Manila and sold cigarettes on the streets

He started boxing and made the Philippines’ national amateur team; his room and board were paid for by the federal government, and he reportedly had 64 amateur fights (60-4)

He said, “When I was younger, I watched so many videos of Larry Holmes, Joe Frazier, George Foreman and others. I used to rent the videos.

Manny turned pro at 16 and won the Oriental-Pacific flyweight title when he was 18; he invited Bobby to come to Manila and took him to the boxing gym

Brother Rogel was also a talented boxer, but suffered a head injury in a serious motorcycle accident and no longer boxes.

He has become a national hero in the Philippines, and a a movie star, as well – he has starred in popular Filipino action movies with his friend, Mikey Arroyo, the son of the Philippines President

Manny enjoys playing pool in his spare time.

From BoxingConfidential.com, Feb. 5, 2007: Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao and his brother Bobby today went to a school in General Santos City to take a special exam that would allow them to get the equivalent of high school units of educational attainment.
Both Pacquiaos only finished elementary grades, they admit, due to extreme poverty when they were still growing up - a fact they have not forgotten now despite owning million dollar bank accounts from their boxing earnings.

At the Department of Education Testing Center, the fighting brothers took the High School Equivalency Test for six hours, a process Manny called “very, very tiring.” The brothers were administered exams in English, Filipino, Social Studies, Mathematics and Science.

He was very determined to pass, just as he is very determined to win in his fights. He had read the questions very religiously, and answered them well,” said a Dept of Education official when interviewed by the media. The examinations started at 1:00 PM and ended at 6:30 PM, a process described by Pacquiao as more tiring that his trilogy with Erik Morales.

Manny and his wife Jinky have four children.

manny pacquiao vs oscar larios

manny pacquiao vs eric morales III

manny pacquiao vs jorge solis

manny pacquiao vs marco antonio barrera

manny pacquiao vs juan manuel marquez II

manny pacquiao vs david diaz

manny pacquiao vs oscar de la hoya

manny pacquiao vs ricky hatton

manny pacquiao vs joshua Clottey

PROFILE
Name: Joshua Clottey
Alias: The Grandmaster, The Hitter
Birth Date: March 16, 1977
Birth Place: Accra, Ghana
Residence: Bronx, New york, USA
Nationality: Ghana
Age: 33
Height: 5' 9"
Reach: 70"
Stance or Style: Orthodox
Weight category: Welterweight
Trained by: Kwame Asante
Manager:
Global ID: 9300
US ID: 040806

Strengths:
- Has an aggressive style
- good skills and movement
- has good punching power
- He is big and strong at 147 pounds
- he pressures his opponents and wears them down...
- tough and determined
- experienced against top opposition

Regional and World Titles

* International Boxing Federation Welterweight Title (2008-09)
* IBF Intercontinental Welterweight Title (2006)
* WBC Continental Americas Light Middleweight Title (2005)
* NABC Welterweight Title (2004)
* African Boxing Union Welterweight Title (2001)
* Ghanaian Light Welterweight Title (1995)

Amateur and Personal Background:
Clottey was born in Accra. He has three brothers and two sisters. He is the junior brother of Emmanuel Clottey. His father is working on the highway. He makes road and worked in construction. He was a soccer player and pushed all his sons into boxing. They started in Bukom. It's the place in Accra where the fighters train. Azumah Nelson and Ike Quartey, also started in Bukom.

Joshua Cottley started boxing when he was six years old. He was also a soccer player before he became a boxer.

Clottey said "I had 49 amateur fights, with four losses. I reached the quarter-finals in the Commonwealth Games."

He is single, but has one daughter. She is nine years old and lives in Ghana. Clottey is a Muslim, so he gave her daughter a Muslim name, Zeenat Clottey.

Joshua is a member of Ghana's "Ga" tribe, which includes Azumah Nelson, Ike Quartey, Ben "Wonder" Tackie, and many of Ghana's other top boxers...

Boxing News editor Claude Abrams visited Accra several years ago and reported: "Imagine an uneven, open concrete yard about 20 feet square, the floor crumbling in parts and enclosed on three sides, one by the outer wall of a house, the other two by a patched-together fence made of wood and corrugated iron sheets.

"When bare, there's scant evidence that this is or has been the playground to generations of fighting men. There's no roof to keep out the rain or hold back the sun, but how it comes alive when the warriors arrive. The floor becomes cluttered as boxers clamor for room, elbowing each other to throw their blows while children clamber onto the frail walls and perch wide-eyed, like pigeons on a rooftop. There are benches neatly arranged at the entrance, which are quickly filled to capacity. The village has arrived!

"This is Bukom, probably no greater than the area of three football pitches, situated a short drive from the Ghanian capital Accra, where the average life expectancy is around 50, the streets do not have names and the red and dusty roads are so uneven that car passengers would be advised to wear crash hats.

"Scores of young boys and girls in bare feet scramble and fill the dried, earthy streets. They, too, know how to shadow box, how to hold their hands high and to throw punches.

"Ike Quartey was once one of these smiling youngsters - skinny and half-clothed - before he became "The Bazooka"... [He was born] in a rickety structure of little consequence or value which hovers like a tree-house above a pathway on the way to the gym, but now it's a landmark, a must for those perusing the "where to go and visit" guide of Bukom.

"This is a village so immersed in boxing that at any given time during the day there will be a fighter in training and the square will, for most of the year, be occupied by a ring.

"Ghanian fighters...essentially fight in the same patient, methodical manner, knowing when and how to strike. Emotionally, when competing, they appear cold, their eyes focused, their concentration unwavering, though their characters can be warm and almost gentle.

"It is a paradox of almost schizophrenic proportions, though Ghanians are, by nature, proud and polite and perform their tasks neatly, down to the woman in the street who will walk with perfect precision balancing a car battery on her head.

"Here lies an untapped fountain of boys and men who have declared a willingness to fight for survival..."