Boxer Manny Pacquiao has revealed that he taught himself boxing by watching videos of Mike Tyson during the legend’s peak.
The Filipino icon became a world welterweight champion, but few people know that Pacquiao honed his skills watching Mike Tyson dominate the heavyweight division in the 1980s. His uncle would rent videos of “Iron” Mike’s” fights for young Pacquiao to watch over and over again.
Pacquiao’s uncle, Sardo Mejia, once shared with Red Door Media: “He trains all the time and often wakes up at 4am to run. I often go out and rent Mike Tyson fight tapes and show them to Pacquiao. Thanks to that, he learns very quickly.”
WBA champion Pacquiao boasts an incredible record of 62 wins, 2 draws and 7 losses, including 39 knockouts. Born into a poor Filipino family, Manny Pacquiao dropped out of school at an early age while still in elementary school due to his parents’ divorce. As an uneducated child, he helped his mother sell bread and donuts along the streets of General Santos City.
Pacquiao began his professional boxing career at the age of 16 in the 48kg weight class and quickly became a new star on a weekly boxing television show in the Philippines called “Blow by Blow”.
On June 23, 2001, Manny Pacquiao defeated South African opponent Lehlo Ledwaba in the 6th round of the IBF championship match with a technical knockout. This was Pacquiao’s first match in the United States and opened a new page in the brilliant career of the boxer from Southeast Asia.
When he saw PacMan win against Brandon Rios in 2013, Mike Tyson also admitted: “Pacquiao looked explosive in that fight. In all the years I’ve seen, no boxer has been as explosive as Pacquiao that night.”
