When was the first time you guys saw pac?

[El Jesus]

I first saw him against Lucero i think it was on HBO, i was shocked that the phillipines had a boxer on tv, i realized he was a heavy handed that night also. Against barrera i wondered if he would be able to overwhelm him with the same aggression i saw against Lucero, i was imrpessed and i cheered pac on because i couldnt stand barrera for beating morales as well as hamed. I had a feeling the guy would have a great career, even though i was never impressed with his performences against marquez, against everyone else hes really done well and i am glad i caught onto his bandwagon early, which i never get to do, since fighters i jump onto tend to suck later (Bojado, Cintron)

[Left Hook Tua]

ledwaba-pacquiao

[-Antonio-]

Same I remember the Lucero fight and him ducking so low. Next time I saw him was against Barrera.

[Bogler]

ledwaba fight in 2001 although ive read about him prior to this. if i was back home, i would surely have caught him on local boxing broadcasts.

[UnderPressure]

I was familiar with Pacquiao back in the late 90s, but didn't get to see one of his fights until his draw with Agapito Sanchez.

[pin0yd00d]

ledwaba-pacquiao.. I was in awe with his raw power,speed and determination to knock the guy out!

Im glad that Manny helped bring filipino boxing into the limelight!

[Mr. Ryan]

The Ledwaba fight. For sure I thought he was going to get blown out the way HBO was talking about Ledwaba.

[Left Hook Tua]

The Ledwaba fight. For sure I thought he was going to get blown out the way HBO was talking about Ledwaba.

ledwaba was HBO's chosen one at 122 at the time.

they thought lehlo was #1 at 122 and they were showcasing him.

when enrique sanchez pulled out of the fight lehlo's people picked manny because he had an ok record and was a former champ so it'll look good on tv. since he was a former flyweight and got koed twice at flyweight they thought he would be a non-threat.

then with 2 weeks notice manny blew out lehlo and the rest as they say is history.......

[El Jesus]

heh, thats funny, lehlo never did much of anything other than lose, but i didint see his fight with pac, at that point i was in the service, which led me to miss alot of fights anyway.

[Jose Rizal]

I was following his progress even before he fought Sasakul for his first title. I thought he was one of the strongest Pinoy prospects emerging at the time because of the way he bludgeoned his opponents, but he was so raw. He didn't posses the type of footwork and fast high output combination punching we're seeing today. Back in the early days he was a bit of a plodder who was loading up on almost every shot. So it was hard to be totally impressed by him because of his limited skill set, and the thought of him of one day being a PPV headliner certainly never crossed my mind.

He just gradually kept getting better and better, stronger and stronger and you can see marked improvement in his skills when he hooked up with Roach. Yet even after the Lucero fight when he called out Barrera, I had a feeling it was one league too high and too early for him to take on -- MAB being who he was in a higher division -- and I only gave Manny a puncher's chance to beat the Mexican Great. His performance in that fight came as a total surprise to me, especially with the high work rate he was able to sustain for 11 grueling rounds, the speed and angles of his combinations, and his footwork and foot speed. That was a huge leap for him in class.