{"id":424134,"date":"2026-01-21T18:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T18:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/424134\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T18:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T18:29:09","slug":"manny-pacquiao-says-one-man-hit-him-so-hard-he-was-surprised-he-survived-it-was-too-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/424134\/","title":{"rendered":"Manny Pacquiao says one man hit him so hard he was ‘surprised he survived’: “It was too much”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manny Pacquiao<\/a> knew his all-action style sold tickets and thrilled fans, but as he moved up the weight divisions, the risks only grew.<\/p>\n

Starting in December 1998 with a WBC flyweight title win, Pacquiao embarked on an extraordinary 21-year journey of world title fights, capturing honours in a staggering eight divisions.<\/p>\n

Along the way, he dismantled names such as Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Marquez, Erik Morales, Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto. But in 2010, \u2018Pac-Man\u2019 faced someone he later described as the hardest puncher he ever encountered.<\/p>\n

After defending his WBO welterweight title against Joshua Clottey, the Filipino icon moved up another seven pounds to face relentless Mexican Antonio Margarito<\/a> at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.<\/p>\n

Trainer Freddie Roach wanted Pacquiao to box and move against the six-inch taller Margarito, who also held a six-pound weight advantage \u2014 150lbs to Pacquiao\u2019s 144.6.<\/p>\n

Despite the size difference, Pacquiao cruised to victory, winning a world title in an eighth weight class and cementing his place in boxing history. Yet the punches of Margarito remain vivid in his memory. Speaking to The Ring<\/a>, Pacquiao recalled:<\/p>\n

\u201cBig and strong is an understatement. His body shots hurt me several times throughout the fight. His punch is different. It was surprising that I survived that fight. I could take the punches, I could take the blows, but after the fight I could feel something \u2014 it was too much for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the eighth round, Margarito<\/a> looked to stage a comeback, connecting to the body after being on the receiving end of a largely one-sided beating.<\/p>\n

Pacquiao escaped trouble, reversed the momentum, and continued exchanging shots \u2014 a testament to his toughness. Years later, he would add another super-welterweight crown to his collection, defeating Keith Thurman for the WBA title in July 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manny Pacquiao knew his all-action style sold tickets and thrilled fans, but as he moved up the weight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-424134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}