World featherweight boxing champion Manny Pacquiao has come a long way since riding a slow boat with eight other aspiring fighters from General Santos City to find fame and fortune in Manila nearly 10 years ago.
Pacquiao had just turned 17 then, wide-eyed and determined to box his way out of poverty. The second of four children, the southpaw was 13 when he started fighting as an amateur. His father Rosalio barely made both ends meet as a rice farmer and mother Dionisia kept house. He used to watch townmate Abner Cordero, a highly-touted fighter, train in the gym and thought he could do better.
