Pacman: My Story of Hope, Resilience, and Never-Say-Never Determination

by Manny Pacquiao

Pound for pound, Manny is the best boxer in the world, but even more important than holding that distinction, Manny has connected with the people of his home country, the Philippines, to the point where he is almost like a god. --Lennox Lewis, former heavyweight boxer and HBO commentator"Pacman" is Manny's miracle story - his autobiography. Born and raised in an impoverished village in the Philippines, Manny began his life on the ropes. He provided for his family of five in his pre-boxing life by selling practically anything and everything on the streets just to help his family survive. The hard work, determination, and sheer grit that would characterize him as a boxer showed through in a big way during these early years. Though he dreamed of being a priest, his mother could not afford the education, so he soon found another way to move heaven and boxing. According to the New York Times, Manny is pound-for-pound the best fighter in the world today. His rags-to-riches story will inspire you.

Genres: Sports, Biography, Autobiography

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 19, 2010

Reviews

[K.D. Absolutely · Rating 2 out of 5]

My first book finished in 2011 and it is about a fellow Filipino: Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao. He is the most popular athlete in the Philippines. Or maybe even the most popular living Filipino on earth!

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And would you believe that he wrote this book? That's the reason why I bought this book. He is the World Boxing Champion in 7 divisions, he is the congressman of Saranggani, a father to 4 small children, endorser of many, many products, lead singer of his band, an actor in local showbiz, a husband to Jinkee, a son to Nanay Dionisia, a brother to a fellow boxer, Bobby, etc and he still has time to write?

Well, the book is well-written and it even has nice colored pictures of Manny. Unfortunately, there are no pictures when he was still a baby abandoned by his father in Kibawe (Southern Bukidnon), or when at age two, his family moved to Tango which is on top of a mountain in Saranggani, or a hungry teenager trying to earn money by helping fishermen on the shores of Saranggani by walking a couple of hours from their mountain house. There is picture of a young Manny but not the boxing training house in General Santos or in Digos. It would have been a lot interesting if those pictures were incorporated here as those years of Manny's life are truly inspiring. I also hope that this 2010 book, originally published in the US by DUNHAM BOOKS (published locally by Anvil Publishing, Inc) can be translated to Filipino so many of his fans will be able to know his life's complete story.

I have to admit one thing: I am not a boxing fan. I cannot understand why people have to shell out their hard-earned cash to go to the US and see boxing bouts live nor those who troop to moviehouses to see the fight via satellite in wide screens or those who subscribe for pay-for-view and watch the game as it happens. I normally catch the game late not paying anything except for the electricity consumed by my small TV. However, I normally watch because the bout would be the topic in the office pantry for the next few days after the bout and maybe few more days when Pacquiao comes back home and creates traffic in the major thoroughfares because of his victory parades.

Manny is now a household name what with the products, local and international, that he and his family endorse. He is also said to be the 6th highest-paid athlete in the world with a total of $40 million from the second half of 2008 to the first half of 2009 (Source: page 214 of this book). His name was also entered in the Guinness Book of Records as the only boxer who won in the 7 divisions: in the right order now flyweight, bantamweight, featherweight, super-featherweight, lightweight, junior welterweight and welterweight! Mind you, I did not know about these divisions and their order prior to this book :)

I also learned about the Team Pacquiao, the stories about his manager(s) - before and now, his and Jinkee's love story, that Jinkee has a good business acumen, that Nanay Dionisia is Manny's pillar of strenght, that the Manny Pacquiao Foundation is helping many poor families, that Manny has a ready-cash for his fellow citizen who knocks at his residence, that Manny wanted to be a priest and not really a boxer, that Manny's idol is Oscar De La Hoya who he prayed for before, during and after his fight with him on Dec 6, 2008 (MGM Las Vegas). Manny won over De La Hoya via KO. Manny was sorry that he defeated his idol that he even whispered in De La Hoya's ears when they embraced each other after the fight: "You are still my idol!"

I am happy to have a Filipino as a World Boxing Champion. He is a God-fearing, helps his countrymen and still maintains his soft heart for the poor despite the fame and riches that he now enjoys.

He is one of the many reasons why we Filipinos should be proud of ourselves!

[Roman Khan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book is 5 stars because it shows how you could be one of the poorest people in the world to one of the most famous. I love how hard he worked and how he had a such strong passion for boxing religion, and his country. It showed his steps taken to lead to greatness, but coolest thing was how he barely lost, that was how good he was. I think he is going to have a fight soon as well. He trained so hard and the thing is some people do not realise the troubles he went through as a child. At a young age he could beat anyone in a fight. Even if they were twice his height. He also was homeless for 3 months but still went on as boxing and religion and pride drove him on. He started moving up the ranks all the way up to Oscar de la hoya- Pacquiao’s idol. Many Pacquiao’s fanbase doubled over night as he dominated and destroyed the great Oscar so badly, that he retired after that fight. It may get a little boring towards the end because it then goes into politics but I think its still a very good part.

[Samar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was about Pacquiao and his life. Manny Pacquiao is a great boxer and a world best fighter for me. Of course Muhammad Ali is greater but I like Pacquiao’s skill by the book explaining to me. The bit I liked best about the book was when he was fighting his idol Oscar de la Hoya and won which I was surprised by him not losing to Oscar. Pacquiao is a great fighter because his skill and technique and his power is interesting when he explains how his fights are and how he feels wen he is in the fight. This other good bit is from a speech that he said in his book: “it’s an intense exercise of focus and visualisation I would focus and visualise every single step for what I wanted to be how I would get there and what help I would need. Then I would imagine finding ultimate success.”
Another good speech was: “the three things you need to instil in your life are goals, a system to reach your goals and the discipline to maintain your system until you reach your goals.”

[Timothy Trout · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative and Inspiring

This was an informative look at the life of Pac-Man. The writing style is very simple, but it does the job. The formatting of the kindle version is not great and there are punctuation and capitalization errors.

[Precious Maiquez · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are expecting a tell-all memoir, you'll end up disappointed.

Nonetheless, Manny Pacquiao's rags-to-riches, 'hardwork and determination' story is a beacon of hope for a developing nation.

[Christopher]

As a fighter, the hunger for inspiration and motivation deepens as I draw closer to the arena of my life. The sport of boxing has taught me all I kow about myself today. It has not only taught me boxing, but it has taught me boxing in life, and thats why I box. The story of Philipino star, Manny Pacquiao serves as an inspiration to not just fighters, but to everybody who is trying to find hope in a world full of chaos and that tries to shred their life into pieces. I love to follow Manny Pacquiao's example at the young age I am right now. However, I know as I grow older that I am going to have to be my own imspiration and be myself. Manny's story outlines his personal success rising from his setbacks at an early age into his comebacks today. He is truly a champion. This story is about his biography - a life filled with the fog and clouds of hopelessness. Today, he is living his dream because of his humility, faith, perseverence, determination, and most importantly, his belief in Jesus Christ.

[Sunny · Rating 5 out of 5]

great insight into Manny's past and how he came to be in 2009/10/11 at the peak of the boxing world. the debate about him or floyd mayweather junior will go on for ever i think but what he did to oscar dela hoya was one of the most perfect boxing performances i have ever seen and ive watched almost all of FMJs fights too. the book talks about his humble beginnings and how as a child he would walk for miles carrying fish adn water in buckets up and down hills (reason for his amazing calves). his physicall prowesss is incredible. his recent downfall and 2 recent losses have marred an otherwise unbelievable career but to many in the phillipines he is considered almost god like and will undoubtedly be Presdeent of the Pillipines pretty soon iwould imagine. the amount of commnity work him and his wife do is unreal.

[Seth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm only giving the BOOK 3 stars and ONLY from a literary point of view. The man, Manny Pacquiao gets FIVE stars...so do not let my 3 stars prevent you from reading this book about one of, if not THE biggest hero to me.
This book was obviously created out of the need and demand of the fans of Manny, and everyone can agree that boxing is his forte, not mastery of the English language or writing. In fact, there are many instances where the word smithing in the text is obviously something Manny would never say...any more than I could quote Shakespeare in Manny's native language.
However, I really enjoyed this book because Manny Pacquiao is and has always been a source of strength and an inspiration to me to be a better Father, Christian and Husband. For THAT, he gets 8 stars.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was amazed by this book. It was so much more than just a "fighter story". This man is so true to his core values. He could be a walking ad for the marine corps, honor courage commitment. He is not a sell out superstar but someone who genuinely cares about people. Even though I'm not a big boxing fan, my husband follows Pacquiao with cult-like following, so I hear about him frequently. I have seen him train in videos and on tv. He is an incredible fighter, but beyond that, he's an incredible person. This is definitely a book to add to your shelves. My favorite quote from the book is, "You see, not forgiving someone hurts you just as much as it hurts them." ~Manny Pacquiao

[Salsabrarian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Surviving a hardscrabble life on the streets gave boxing champ Manny Pacquiao the skills and determination he needed to prove himself in the ring and succeed. I didn't feel I learned a lot about him as a person, and it seemed more an inspirational tome than autobiography. If you don't know much about Pacman but have heard enough about him to be curious, this book will give you the basics. I read it as a library e-book and that version had tons of copy-editing errors.