Pacquiao nominated for Laureus

MANILA, Philippines - After a year of continuing success in the ring, Filipino boxing champion Manny Pacquiao has been nominated for his first Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award, following a ballot by the world’s media.

Pacquiao, long regarded as the world’s No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer by the Ring magazine, and named Fighter of the Decade‚ for the 2000s by the Boxing Writers Association of America, has had a record-breaking campaign last year. He took a unanimous decision win over Joshua Clottey for the WBO welterweight championship last March then Pacquiao became the first ever boxer to win world titles in eight different weight divisions when he beat Mexico’s Antonio Margarito in Dallas for the WBC light-middleweight title last November.

In May 2010, he was elected to the House of Representatives.

“Manny Pacquiao is unique and one of a kind. Pacquiao had a dream to fight poverty and hunger the best way he knew how. He knew that if he wanted to reach his goal he would have to work hard, with determination, dedication and concentration,” said former undisputed world middleweight champion and Laureus Academy Member Marvelous Marvin Hagler.

The Laureus World Sports Awards, which recognize sporting achievement during the calendar year 2010, are the premier honors on the international sporting calendar. The winners, as voted by the Laureus World Sports Academy, the ultimate sports jury, made up of 46 of the greatest sportsmen and sportswomen of all time, will be unveiled at a televised Awards Ceremony staged in Abu Dhabi on Feb. 7.

“Pacquiao is one of the best boxers in the world. He has shown the younger generation and all of us that with the power of sport nothing is impossible. I believe that Pacquiao is a star of the boxing world because he possesses incredible talent, and he should be recognized with the Laureus 2011 World Sportsman Award,” said Hagler.

Also nominated for the 2011 Laureus Sportsman of the Year Award is Barcelona football star Lionel Messi, Spanish World Cup winner Andres Iniesta, Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal, Germany’s Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel and LA Lakers’ Kobe Bryant.

For details, log on to www.laureus.com/Awards/2011/Nominees.