Filipino Superstar Pacquiao Fights for Eighth Title

Boxing, Political and Singing Star Takes on Mexico's Antonio Margarito Tonight

ByABC News
November 13, 2010, 2:13 PM

Nov.13, 2010— -- Filipino boxing sensation, platinum-selling recording artist and new congressman Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao will make a bid for the World Boxing Council's crown tonight when he takes on Mexico's Antonio "Tornado" Margarito in Dallas.

A seven-division world champion, 31-year-old Pacquiao is a bona fide megastar in the Philippines: In May of this year he was elected to the country's House of Representatives, he has two platinum albums under his belt and has acted in eight feature films.

Tonight he is looking for his eighth title, which he will seek in front of a crowd of 50,000 fans at Cowboys Stadium.

This is Pacquiao's biggest fight since he was elected to public office in March, and his entire country will be watching with baited breath.

The unique role Pacquiao has filled in his country has led him to International fame, but some fans of his boxing worry that he may be spreading himself too thin. Not to worry, he says.

"The focus is always there," Pacquiao told The Associated Press. "I'm always hungry for a fight. There is no distraction."

Manny Pacquiao: Rags to Riches

Abandoned by his father, Pacquiao left home as a teenager because his mother didn't have enough money to feed him. At first boxing was just a way to eat. Now he is the biggest star in a sport badly in need of new big stars.

By 2008, Pacquiao had raked in $40 million and added $35 million the following year. In 2009, Forbes magazine ranked Pacquiao as the sixth-highest-paid athlete in the world.

For tonight's fight he is guaranteed $15 million, his biggest payday ever, and could make up to $25 million if the fight sells as well on television as promoters expect.

As his fame grew, so did his ambitions. In 2007, Pacquiao announced his bid for a congressional seat in the District of South Cotabato, where he lost to a well-established incumbent. He ran again in 2010, this time in the Sarangani province, the hometown of his wife, Jinkee, with the Nacionalista Party. He won in a landslide victory, ousting the wealthy Chiongbian clan, who had been in power for more than 30 years.