It’s not a great mystery — Manny Pacquiao was born into abject poverty. Dropping out of high school at age 14, he worked in construction to survive. What little he made, he had to decide on either sending home, or purchasing food and shelter with. He could not have both. As a result, young Pacquiao was severely malnourished.
The picture above is Pacquiao at age 17, training in a makeshift gym in the slums of Manila. He was skinny, incredibly driven, but skinny. Couldn’t get enough protein, lived off of noodles and cheap streetfoods. Then he put all that anger, all that frustration over his poverty-stricken life, into action… he started boxing. And he started winning.
And as Manny Pacquiao began eating his way through the devisions, like Pac-Man (his nickname) he got prize money. And the first thing he did? Eat. Finally, Manny could eat! Finally he wasn’t malnourished anymore. So he kept on training. He kept on fighting. And with proper nutrition, he lept growing. He was no longer to make the lighter weight devisions and would move up in weight classes. Each class he would enter, he would obliterate.
Most boxers don’t start their careers literally starving half to death in some ghetto. Many aren’t rich to begin with, but few are as broke as Pacquiao was. He moved through so many weight divisions because as he earned more, he ate more — before he started boxing, he never went to bed on a full stomach. And with blood, sweat and tears he changed his fate.
No comments:
Post a Comment