Pacquiao’s journey from shanty town to Las Vegas

I've been reading all the websites, magazines and papers and everybody seems to have made their mind up about this fight already. That doesn't scare me, I've been here before. They said I was an overhyped, overprotected, beer-drinking Englishman - but I'm here to shock the world again." The words of Ricky 'the Hitman' Hatton, speaking to the press ahead of his fight against Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas this Saturday.

Hatton's story – the genial, bingeing Man City fanatic who started out in the family carpet business – is a persuasive one. But it is nothing compared to how his opponent has reached the top.

Emmanuel 'Manny' Dapidran Pacquiao's journey from a shanty town on an island in the Philippines to his current near-unanimous reputation as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world is an astonishing tale. He grew up sleeping on cardboard, working in a laundry when he should have been at school, and throwing his fists at a punchbag that he had stuffed with old clothes. His mother wanted him to join the priesthood.

One day in 1990, when he was twelve, Pacquiao returned home with a stray dog. His father, a farmhand who had been drinking that day, decided to punish him. So he cooked the dog and ate it.

Disgusted, Pacquiao left home and started sleeping rough, selling water and doughnuts for a pittance to get by. Then he stowed away in a ship to Manila, five hundred miles away. There he met Ben Delgado, a man who ran a local gym. Despite doubts that he was big enough to cut it as a boxer, Delgado took Pacquiao under his wing, allowing him to sleep on the canvas of his ring.

'Pacman', as he is affectionately known, remembers those days: "I was on my own and had to work to survive. I worked in construction, painted houses and sewed clothes in a factory and all the time I trained to be a fighter. Other people may forget this but I will never forget. This is what drives me to be the champion I am for my people."

Pacquiao turned professional aged 17 and started making a name for himself on a television show called Blow by Blow. He sent his earnings, all $2 a fight, back to his mother.

Now 30, and considering retirement, he has a record of 48 wins in 53 professional fights, has won world titles in four different weight divisions, and has earned something in the region of £30. In his last fight, his demonic hand-speed was far too much for Oscar de la Hoya, the fading American great.

Such is Pacquiao's standing back home that stamps have been issued in his honour, and Philippine law requires the army to help if his family are endangered. He is known as the ‘National Fist', and considered by some as a latter-day saint. Devoutly Catholic, he funds hundreds of children through school, and has bought hundreds of hospital beds, even a fire engine.

Despite concerns about his political naivete, it's widely believed that Pacquiao will enter the minefield of public life after he leaves the ring. He's a member of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's Free Filipino party, and fought an unsuccessful campaign in the 2007 Congressional elections. But the feeling persists that he can do more for his country with his gloves on.

On Mindanao, the island where he was born, a conflict between Islamic rebels and the army has killed more than 120,000 people over the last few decades. As Granville Ampong, a Filipino journalist told the Daily Telegraph, "the masses could have overthrown the government but each time Manny fights, he calms the situation... when he enters the ring, a truce is declared between guerrillas and the national army, and the crime rate all over the Philippines drops to zero. It's an amazing phenomenon."