Book of Manny Pacquiao's Autobiography
Pacquiao is considered the world’s greatest boxer of his era or even better than Muhammad Ali pound-for-pound, and owns probably the greatest rags-to-riches story in sports.
Off the ring, he is a congressman in his province of Sarangani. That only makes him more special.
Pacquiao, who started out as a gangling 106 lb fighter in 1995, had risen to become the only boxer to win world titles in eight weight divisions, the last one, coming at the expense of Antonio Margarito, at 154 lb.
He’d gone undefeated since 2005, and has pulled off a string of 13 straight victories. On May 7 he goes up against American Shane Mosley at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Pacquiao has won numerous awards over the last couple of years, being named Fighter of the Decade by the World Boxing Council, and the prestigious Boxing Writers Association of America.
He’d been on the cover of Time Magazine, has appeared on 60 Minutes, had his colorful life featured on the BIOgraphy Channel, and earned spots on Sports Illustrated, ESPN and news icon CNN.
The Laureus World Sportsman Award could be his next world title.
It is the premier global sports awards honoring the greatest sports figures, both men and women, each year. The winners are selected by the ultimate sports jury – the 46 members of the Laureus World Sports Academy, the living legends of sport honoring the great athletes of today.
The 2011 awards will take place on Feb. 7 at the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi. It will be broadcast to a worldwide TV audience, and will provide a high profile, a very distinguished list of great sportsmen.
Usain Bolt ran away with the 2010 award, his second straight, and joined the likes of Tiger Woods (2000 and 2001), Michael Schumacher (2002 and 2004), Lance Armstrong (2003) and Roger Federer (2005 until 2008).
Serena Williams was the other winner, and has Marion Jones, Jennifer Capriati, Cathy Freeman, Anika Sorenstam, Justine Henin and Yelena Isinbayeva as company.
The Laureus is like the Oscars of sports.
The Patron of Laureus is Nelson Mandela.
The members are Giacomo Agostini, Marcus Allen, Severiano Ballesteros, Franz Beckenbauer, Boris Becker, Ian Botham, Sergey Bubka, Bobby Charlton, Sebastian Coe, Nadia Comaneci, Yaping Deng, Marcel Desailly, Kapil Dev, David Douillet, Emerson Fittipaldi, Sean Fitzpatrick, Dawn Fraser, Cathy Freeman, Tanni Grey-Thompson, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Mika Häkkinen, Tony Hawk, Mike Horn, Miguel Indurain, Michael Johnson, Kip Keino, Franz Klammer, Dan Marino, John McEnroe, Edwin Moses (Chairman), Nawal El Moutawakel, Robby Naish, Ilie Nastase, Martina Navratilova, Alexey Nemov, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Morné du Plessis, Hugo Porta, Vivian Richards, Monica Seles, Mark Spitz, Daley Thompson, Alberto Tomba, Steve Waugh and Katarina Witt.
For the 2010 affair held last March, also at Abu Dhabi, Academy Awards winner Kevin Spacey was host, and on hand were Hollywood stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Hugh Grant and Clive Owen, Kyle MacLachlan and Michelle Rodriguez.
There is a two-part voting process to find the winners. Firstly, a selection panel of the world’s leading sports editors, writers and broadcasters from over 150 countries votes for the six nominees in the different categories, including the Team of the Year, Breakthrough of the Year and Comeback of the Year.
Then the members of the Laureus World Sports Academy vote by secret ballot to select the Award winners.
Manny Pacquiao’s name could be in that final envelope.
Notes: An American recording company that hauled Manny Pacquiao to court for an alleged breach of contract has withdrawn its $10 million complaint. GMA-7 News yesterday reported that the RBM Group International filed the case in Los Angeles due to Pacquiao’s alleged failure to record the first two songs of a 12-song contract upon his receipt of $40,000 on Sept. 16, 2009. Pacquiao was to get $160,000 to record the 12 songs. GMA-7 also reported that Marshalaine F. Dungog, Pacquiao’s lawyer, would file a demurrer, to be heard on March 23, 2011. A demurrer is a move that even if the allegations in a certain complaint are found to be true they are not sufficient to impose any liability on the defendant. An American-Mexican promoter also filed a $1.8 million case against Pacquiao last November due to the latter’s alleged failure to appear in a promotional gig last September. The Texas court then ordered that $1.5 million of the boxer’s income for his fight against Antonio Margarito be held back until the case is on. Edmundo Lozano, the promoter, said Pacquiao entered into a $100,000 contract with his outfit for a social appearance in McAllen Texas. But it never pushed through because the boxer was busy training for the Nov. 13 fight with Antonio Margarito. “Our lawyers are taking care of it,” Pacquiao said after the case was filed. -
By Abac Cordero (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)
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