BY REYNALD MAGALLON
Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao leads the list of candidates eligible to be enshrined into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2025.
The only eight division world champion in the history of boxing, Pacquiao is widely expected to be a first ballot inductee with the formal announcement set in December while the annual induction will be from June 5 to 8 in Canastota, New York.
Pacquiao’s name has been added to the ballot list in the men’s modern era (last bout no later than 1989) alongside fellow greats in Mikey Garcia, Lucian Bute and Shawn Porter.
Once formally inducted, Pacquiao would be the third Filipino boxer in the Hall of Fame and fourth overall. He will join Gabriel “Flash” Elorde who was enshrined in 1993, Pancho Villa in 1994, and promoter Lope Sarreal Sr. in 2005.
Pacquiao will also join former trainer Freddie Roach and former promoter Bob Arum in the Hall of Fame.
The Filipino great finished his career with a 62-8-2 record with 39 knockouts beginning from 1995 and until 2021 when he last fought and suffered an upset loss to Yordenis Ugas.
Still, that hardly affected Pacquiao’s legacy where he won titles after titles from flyweight to junior middleweight during his prime years, defeating the likes of Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Marquez, Erik Morales, Miguel Cotto, Ricky Hatton, and Antonio Margarito along the way.
It was his win against Margarito that etched his name into boxing history, winning a title in his eighth division – the first boxer to ever do so. He has won 12 major world titles and also became the first boxer to win the lineal championship across five different weight classes.
He was a four-time Ring Magazine ranked No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter from 2008 to 2011 and thrice the Fighter of the Year awardee in 2006, 2008 and 2009. He was also the first boxer ever to become a four-decade world champion, winning titles all across four decades (1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s)
In 2015, Pacquiao was featured in the highest grossing boxing pay-per-view in history when he fought 2021 Hall of Fame inductee Floyd Mayweather Jr.
