{"id":860518,"date":"2026-08-19T06:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T06:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/860518\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T06:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T06:48:15","slug":"manny-pacquiao-founded-league-to-join-east-asia-super-league-as-new-partner-next-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/860518\/","title":{"rendered":"Manny Pacquiao-founded league to join East Asia Super League as new partner next season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The Filipino professional basketball league founded by Manny Pacquiao is joining the East Asia Super League as its newest partner, the regional league announced on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Launched in 2017 by boxing great Pacquiao, 47, the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League\u2019s (MPBL) reigning champions, Abra Weavers, will compete in the 2026-27 EASL season, which tips off in the first week of October.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A young team in the Philippines league, the Weavers joined the MPBL only in 2024, but they quickly established themselves as one of its elite teams before capturing the championship in just their second season.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cThis is a proud moment for the MPBL,\u201d Pacquiao, the eight-weight world champion, said. \u201cFrom the beginning, our vision has been to create opportunities for Filipino basketball to continue growing. The Abra Weavers have shown what is possible when a team represents its community with ambition, discipline and pride.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cThey earned the right to call themselves MPBL champions, and now they have the opportunity to represent our league and Philippine basketball against some of the best teams in Asia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League was founded by boxing legend Manny Pacquiao. Photo: Handout\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/26df5309-2547-4ff3-9bda-a72f45bb451a_7390c88c.jpg\" title=\"The Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League was founded by boxing legend Manny Pacquiao. Photo: Handout\"\/>The Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League was founded by boxing legend Manny Pacquiao. Photo: Handout<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">MPBL chief executive Joe Ramos added that it was an \u201cimportant milestone\u201d to have a representative in the EASL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Filipino professional basketball league founded by Manny Pacquiao is joining the East Asia Super League as its&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":860519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[430412,350386,64,63,726,430417,430408,93895,430409,343222,18721,430410,2795,430411,430413,430414,85,430415,430416],"class_list":["post-860518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-abra-weavers","tag-alvark-tokyo","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-busan-kcc-egis","tag-easl","tag-east-asia-super-league","tag-henry-kerins","tag-hong-kong-eastern","tag-korean-basketball-league","tag-maharlika-pilipinas-basketball-league","tag-manny-pacquiao","tag-mpbl","tag-nagasaki-velca","tag-ryukyu-golden-kings","tag-sports","tag-taipei-fubon-braves","tag-ulaanbaatar-xac-broncos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}