Manny Pacquiao transformed career with $40k purse and stunning KO that scared casinos

Manny Pacquiao was a super bantamweight whose record read 32-2 the night his career was transformed when he fought in the US for the first time.

Until then he had fought only in his native Philippines, Thailand, or Japan – he had made his debut in 1995 at light flyweight – contributing to him accepting the offer to challenge the IBF super-bantamweight champion Lehlo Ledwaba with two weeks’ notice when Enrique Sanchez was ruled out.

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When he fought Floyd Mayweather in 2015, a total of $600m was generated, but as the late-notice replacement for Mexico’s Sanchez, the 23-year-old Pacquiao was paid $40,000 – a reflection of the value of a fight between a South African and a Filipino respectively weighing 122lbs and 121lbs in Las Vegas in 2001.

“I went to the States to fight a different opponent [who] was orthodox,” Ledwaba once told The Ring Magazine.

“I was told he was hurt and they found Manny to replace him. I did not know Manny was a southpaw. Southpaws you need to prepare well for.”

A hint of Pacquiao’s promise perhaps lay in the fact that he was guided to the ring that night at the MGM Grand by none other than the great Freddie Roach.

Ledwaba, regardless, had two months earlier convincingly defeated the formidable Carlos Contreras in what represented the fifth defence of the vacant title he had won in 1999 when defeating John Michael Johnson. With a record that read 31-1-1, he had also won his previous 23 fights.

Oscar De La Hoya, then the world’s highest-profile fighter and Pacquiao’s opponent the night in 2008 that Pacquiao won his first super fight, was the lead attraction in the main event in which he was defending his WBC light-middleweight title against Javier Castillejo.

Ledwaba featured on his undercard because he was considered on course for a bigger future; the odds against Pacquiao were so great that casinos in Vegas reportedly refused to take bets on their fight.

“I was a day away from going home to the Philippines when the fight was offered to me,” Pacquiao later said.

“I was so excited. This was a great opportunity for me. There was no way I was going to pass it up.

“We were staying in a small apartment in Hollywood, near the Denny’s on Sunset Boulevard, not far from the highway [101]. 

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“We wandered over to a gym that had been recommended to us – Wild Card Boxing Club – and my manager introduced himself to a man in the gym and told him he was looking for a trainer to work mitts with me. 

“That man turned out to be the gym owner, Freddie Roach, who agreed to work with me.

“After the first round, I returned to my corner and said I just found my new trainer. Freddie was great with the mitts and as I soon found out, great with instruction too. 

“Suddenly, as I was preparing to go back to the Philippines, we get an offer to challenge Lehlo Ledwaba.

“I was the number-three-rated contender and the two fighters ahead of me couldn’t, or wouldn’t, take the fight. 

“Freddie and I had trained together about two weeks and now I’m walking into the ring at the MGM Grand to fight Ledwaba on HBO pay-per-view. It was crazy. That fight changed my life.”

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“If that call comes a day later, Manny misses out on that fight,” said Roach. 

“We trained for two weeks and every day I’m falling more and more in love with his boxing skills and power. He was that good.

“So now it’s fight week and I’m going to every casino trying to lay a bet on Manny. Unfortunately, the fight was considered such a mismatch that no casino would post odds on it.”

Those working the broadcast for HBO – Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant and former heavyweight champion George Foreman – had to attempt to learn to pronounce Pacquiao’s then-little-known name and about his background on the eve of his US debut.

They, like almost everyone else outside of Pacquiao’s camp – the experienced promoters Top Rank included – had expected Ledwaba, 29 years old, to win. 

Pacquiao proceeded to make what remains one of the most memorable of all statements in a boxing ring.

Against a proven champion, his breathtaking speed and spite meant that he recorded three knockdowns before, in the sixth round, forcing the intervention of Joe Cortez, the referee. 

Fifty-nine seconds of the sixth round had passed before Cortez rightly recognised that Ledwaba required his protection.

The three ringside judges each had Pacquiao leading by scores of 50-44. 

“Manny jumped on Ledwaba from the start and finished him in the sixth round,” recalled Roach. 

“It was brutal. But what a night. I remember we all went to dinner to celebrate at some small restaurant near the MGM Grand.

“Manny and I went from strangers to a world championship team in about two weeks.”

“I tried almost everything,” explained Ledwaba. “I’m a boxer who used to think. I always tried to outwork an opponent, but it was totally different against Manny.

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“Firstly, I was flat-footed, but he was on his toes all the time, so he was hard to hit. I couldn’t nail him. He’d jump in and throw his punches – it was tough.

“Pacquiao wasn’t known in the US until he fought me. At that time, I was at the peak of my career.

“I was regarded as one of the best [super bantamweights] around. For Manny to beat me was a breakthrough, so I would say I introduced him as far as America is concerned.”

Ledwaba died of Covid, aged 49, in 2021. He had fought a further seven times before retiring, recording four defeats and demonstrating that, as with so many of Pacquiao’s other opponents, the Filipino left the best of him in the ring.

Pacquiao’s remarkable success, in later defeating, among others, Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera, an epic rivalry with Juan Manuel Marquez, De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito – the latter at a weight as high as light middleweight – ultimately served to enhance his reputation.