This Pac Man is Not a Game.

Manny Pacquiao (39-3, 31 KOs) is a man who seems to love boxing with such a dedicated passion. Even though he does not enunciate English as his first language, you can read Pacquiao excitement from partaking in a sport that depends on teamwork combined with hard training, and individuality come fight time. Bernard Hopkins, Antonio

Tarver, Mike Tyson and a host of other boxers hold cold, indocile facial expressions during their walk to the ring. At press conferences, boxers will taunt one another, disrespect one another and plainly destroy any olive branch of communication. It’s boxing and many need such behaviors. However, in Pacquiao’s defense, it seems as if he loves to fight and cares less to use antics to promote his fights. Pacquiao loves the attention, every single aspect of it, in a positive way of course. The usage of his smiles could make one think, “Why is he so happy before a fight?” Add in the muscle flexing during several weigh-ins and you have a scene of amusement and intrigue.

Pacquiao has elevated with such dominance and he has been improving with each fight. His professional boxing career began in the flyweight division. From flyweight, he became more than a knockout specialist; he became a knockout artist. He would leave his trail of knockouts in the bantamweight division, but his world recognition party would come after his defeat of the traditionalist boxer Marco Antonio Barrera in the featherweight class.

The date for Pacquiao to show the world his skills happened on November 15, 2003. In boxing logic, it would only seem plausible to support Barrera’s style of old school boxing, over Pacquiao’s southpaw stance motivated with power shots and the freedom to let his hands go. Barrera had that mature boxer look and Pacquiao had that energized, naïve and going for it all in three rounds look. Pacquiao shocked the boxing world with his dismantling of Barrera, not with the win over Barrera. It was not as if Pacquiao was some fly-by-night bar fighter who lucked up. He defeated a Barrera that seemed to eat, sleep, and live in a boxing ring.

How do you top that?

You enter into a war with another master of boxing: Juan Manuel Marquez. Close to six months into celebrating his defeat over Barrera, Pacquiao find himself in the ring with Marquez on May 8, 2004. The first round of that fight was a letter of high level climaxing. Marquez went down three times in the first round. Allow Marquez some credit for keeping his composure and wit, and allow Pacquiao some credit for keeping that fire of energy he seems to have in every fight. That fight ended in a draw and like all great matches that land in the center of the ringside judges palms, their decision evokes protests and debates; both in the fans and writer’s worlds.

Pacquiao made his next fight against Fahsan 3K Battery Por Thawatchai look like a sparring session. Now we must witness Pacquiao’s advancement to the super featherweight division. A division he entered into by taking on a significant fight with Erik Morales. Another fight that left Pacquiao fans in the hallway of debate, as some people actually support Pacquiao winning that fight.

This fight card on September 10 holds both Morales squaring off with a fair test in Zahir Raheem and Pacquiao fighting the durable Hector Velazquez; sowing the seeds for a Morales-Pacquiao rematch. If they both win, it would be provident that the two meet in the same ring on the same night, opposite of one another.

Pacquiao may be named after a famous video game, smile a lot and seem like a child with his appreciation of always wanting to tangle with the best, but he also shares another nickname that is not as frequently used. “The Destroyer,” is even more reason to watch his fights, and even more reason for him to smile at the end of his hard-fought matches.

Who said boxers had no fun?

Contact Shaun Rico LaWhorn at filmmaking_mentality@msn.com