Manny Pacquiao has surprised everyone with the announcement of his return to boxing at 46 years of age. The Filipino will face Mario Barrios on July 19 and has caught the attention of the boxing world, earning applause and also many questions. The Filipino’s career has had all kinds of episodes, however, in an interview, Pacquiao confessed a great secret that could have marked his entire career.
Pacquiao was present on The George Janko Show alongside Janko’s wife, Shawna Janko. In the interview, the Filipino became increasingly confident and spoke about practically everything. The moment of surprise came when the presenters asked the boxer “How could you start your professional career so early?” to which Pacquiao was forced to tell his truth.
“Well, you know, it’s kind of funny because I started my amateur boxing when I was 12 years old. And then I applied for the Philippine team to be part of the team that was going to the Olympics,” Pacquiao said. After some problems, he could not make the team, but the opponent he beat did. “Yes, even the one they put in the team, the one I beat in the fight,” added the boxer.
“I was 16 years old at that time, and that’s when I decided to tell my coach, whom we call Mambo: ‘I think I’m not lucky here as an amateur. I have to decide to become a professional,” Pacquiao said, but there was a big problem, and that is that to become a professional he had to be 18 years old and he was only 16, so he talked to his coach. “Yes, no problem. I can, I can, I can fight. And he called me ‘boy’. ‘Boy, the minimum age is 18 years old and you are 16 years old. You just turned 16 years old.’ I told him: ‘OK, no, it’s OK. We’ll tell them I’m 18 years old’.”
In boxing, anything goes
Manny Pacquiao explained on the show that things were easier back then because processes were slower without the internet, so he was able to get away with it. “Back then, there was no fax, there was no email like now. I told them that since I already had a fight scheduled, maybe the birth certificate could be sent later,” he said, claiming that he would present the documents after his fight.
With the trip to Manila taking a minimum of three to four days, the official agreed, and Manny Pacquiao made his debut against Edmund Enting Ignacio, winning by unanimous decision in the fourth round. Despite putting weights in his pockets to make the weight, Pacquiao’s performance was so impressive that the official forgot about the paperwork and the rest of his career is history.
From politics to the ring at 46
In August 2021, Manny Pacquiao retired from boxing to focus 100% on politics. The Filipino had already been a senator, but his ambition was even greater, he wanted to run for the presidency in the Philippines and that is why he hung up his gloves. “My boxing career is over. I’ve been in the sport for a long time and my family told me it was time to stop,” he explained at the time.
Pacquiao ran for president in the 2022 elections, but was unsuccessful and was left wanting to have had such a big challenge as being president. After this failure, the boxer took some time off, but eventually realized that his passion was in the ring and in 2025 decided to make his long-awaited return against Barrios.
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