Manny Pacquiao will aim to overcome the odds when he faces Mario Barrios for the WBC World Welterweight title on Saturday night.
A win would put Pacquiao among the oldest champions in boxing history, as he is a world title challenger at 46 years of age.
However, challenging for world titles is by no means a new experience for the ‘Pac-Man’.
Being just 19 years old when he first became a world champion in 1998, 27 years later Pacquiao will once again aim to dethrone a world champion.
Years before fighting for world titles, Pacquiao was still trying to make some money from fighting.
Photo by Harry How/Getty ImagesManny Pacquiao talks about the low prize money he fought for as a child
Although Pacquiao went on to become one of boxing’s most notable names, it is well documented that the Filipino fighter came from humble beginnings.
Speaking to Andre Ward in association with All The Smoke Fight, Pacquiao recalled competing in boxing competitions in his local park.
Ward said to Pacquiao, “I remember the story about you being 12 years old, and doing street fighting in General Santos City, for low money, just a few pesos.”
Pacquiao replied to say, “I was almost 12 years old around that time. There was a boxing match every Sunday in the park, which is a program of the government.”
The multi-weight world champion said that when he heard there was prize money involved in the boxing in the park, he became interested.
Pacquiao then added, “The prize money, do you know how much the prize money [was]? Like, when you lost, [you got] $1. When you win, [you got] $2.”
The fighter then went on to say that he wasn’t familiar with boxing at all, to the point where he was told he wasn’t allowed to kick.
The motivation for competing was to contribute some money to his household. “I just want to earn money so that when I go back home to my mom, I have money to buy food.”
Pacquiao said that he won the boxing match, earning $2 in the process. “I got $2, but, you know, that’s 100 pesos in the Philippines. So that’s big because, you can buy one kilo of rice for 620 pesos, so you can buy more kilos of rice.”
Manny Pacquiao went on to earn $120 million in Floyd Mayweather fight
Despite earning just $2 for his fight as a youth, Pacquiao would go on to earn major paydays as a professional boxer.
In May 2015, Pacquiao would compete in the highest-profile fight of his career. Taking on Floyd Mayweather in Las Vegas, the pair competed in one of the most anticipated boxing matches of all time.
Although the fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao did not live up to expectations, both fighters pocketed a huge sum of money.
According to a report by Forbes, Pacquiao earned $120 million for the fight. As for Mayweather, his fight purse is reported as $180 million.
The report insists that Pacquiao’s professional debut also saw him receive just $2 for his performance.