In computing, POST is one of many request methods supported by the HTTP protocol used by the World Wide Web. The POST request method is used when the client needs to send data to the server as part of the request, such as when uploading a file or submitting a completed form.

In contrast to the GET request method where only a URL and headers are sent to the server, POST requests also include a message body. This allows for arbitrary length data of any type to be sent to the server. A header-field in the POST request usually indicates the message body's Internet media type.

Use for submitting web forms[link]

When a web browser sends a POST request from a web form element, the default Internet media type is "application/x-www-form-urlencoded".^[1] This is a format for encoding key-value pairs with possibly duplicate keys. Each key-value pair is separated by an '&' character, and each key is separated from its value by an '=' character. Keys and values are both escaped by replacing spaces with the '+' character and then using URL encoding on all other non-alphanumeric^[2] characters.

For example, the key-value pairs

Name: Jonathan Doe
Age: 23
Formula: a + b == 13%!

are encoded as

Name=Jonathan+Doe&Age=23&Formula=a+%2B+b+%3D%3D+13%25%21

Starting with HTML 4.0, forms can also submit data in multipart/form-data as defined in RFC 2388 (See also RFC 1867 for an earlier experimental version defined as an extension to HTML 2.0 and mentioned in HTML 3.2).

Affecting server state[link]

Per RFC 2616, the POST method should be used for any context in which a request is non-idempotent: that is, it causes a change in server state each time it is performed, such as submitting a comment to a blog post or voting in an online poll. In practice, GET is often reserved, not simply for idempotent actions, but for nullipotent ones, ones with no side-effects (in contrast to "no side effects on second or future requests" as with idempotent operations).^[3][4] For this reason, web crawlers such as search engine indexers normally use the GET method exclusively, to prevent their automated requests from performing such actions.

However, there are reasons why POST is used even for idempotent requests, notably if the request uses non-ASCII characters or is very long, due to restrictions on URLs – the query string in the GET method may become very long, especially due to percent-encoding.^[3]

See also[link]

• Postback

References[link]

External links[link]

• Straightforward definition of POST
• POST verb in HTTP specification
• URIs, Addressability, and the use of HTTP GET and POST

Look up post or post- in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Post or POST may refer to:

Mail[link]

• Mail, the postal system, especially in Commonwealth of Nations countries
• Hotel post, a service offered by remote Swiss hotels for the carriage of mail to the nearest official post office
• Local post, a mail service that operates only within a limited geographical area, typically a city or a single transportation route
• Parcel post, a service for sending parcels through the post
• Prague pneumatic post, the world's last preserved municipal pneumatic post system
• Wine post, also known as New Zealand Wine Post, is a privately owned postal service in New Zealand
• Post, an entry in a blog or internet forum – see posting style
• Anonymous post, an entry in a blog or internet forum without a screen name or more commonly by using a non-identifiable pseudonym
• Sponsored post, a post to any community-driven notification-oriented website which is explicitly sponsored as an advertisement

Newspapers and magazines[link]

• New York Post, USA
• The Washington Post, USA
• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, USA
• The Christian Post, USA
• The Jerusalem Post, Israel
• The Sunday Post, Scotland
• National Post, Canada
• The Sunday Business Post, Ireland
• Australasian Post, Australia
• Post Magazine, British magazine first published in 1840
• Post Newspapers, Australia
• South China Morning Post, Hong Kong
• The Kathmandu Post, Nepal

Music[link]

• Post (Björk album), the third studio album by Icelandic singer-songwriter and musician Björk, released in June 1995
• Post (Paul Kelly album), the first solo album by Australian singer-songwriter rock musician, Paul Kelly
• Post Records, record label

Organisations and companies[link]

• Post Foods, brand name
• Post University, a university in Connecticut USA
• Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, UK

Places[link]

• Post, Texas, the county seat of Garza County, US
• Post, Oregon, a community at the geographic center of the state of Oregon, US
• Post Lake, Wisconsin, an unincorporated community, US

Sports[link]

• Posting system, transfer system for baseball players moving from a Japanese baseball team to a Major League Baseball team
• Post (route), route run by a receiver in American Football

Technology[link]

• Structural post: Column (architecture)
• Power-on self-test, start-up routines on electronic devices, typically on computers
• POST (HTTP), an HTTP request method
• Pillar (car), structural element of a car body
• .post the internet top-level domain

Other[link]

• Post, a way of riding a horse trot
• Military base, an assigned station or a guard post
• Post (surname)
• Part-of-speech tagging, the process of marking up a word in a text (corpus) as corresponding to a particular part of speech, based on both its definition, as well as its context—i.e. relationship with adjacent and related words in a phrase, sentence, or paragraph
• POST Certification (Peace Officer Standards and Training), a program nationwide for Law enforcement officers

See also[link]

• Pole (disambiguation)
• Posting (laundering process), or postadh, a traditional Scottish method of washing clothes
• Hitching post (disambiguation)
• All pages beginning with "Post"
• All pages with titles containing "Post"

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems.^[1] HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web.

Hypertext is a multi-linear set of objects, building a network by using logical links (the so called hyperlinks) between the nodes (e.g. text or words). HTTP is the protocol to exchange or transfer hypertext.

The standards development of HTTP was coordinated by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), culminating in the publication of a series of Requests for Comments (RFCs), most notably RFC 2616 (June 1999), which defines HTTP/1.1, the version of HTTP in common use.

Technical overview[link]

HTTP functions as a request-response protocol in the client-server computing model. A web browser, for example, may be the client and an application running on a computer hosting a web site may be the server. The client submits an HTTP request message to the server. The server, which provides resources such as HTML files and other content, or performs other functions on behalf of the client, returns a response message to the client. The response contains completion status information about the request and may also contain requested content in its message body.

A web browser is an example of a user agent (UA). Other types of user agent include the indexing software used by search providers (web crawlers), voice browsers, mobile apps and other software that accesses, consumes or displays web content.

HTTP is designed to permit intermediate network elements to improve or enable communications between clients and servers. High-traffic websites often benefit from web cache servers that deliver content on behalf of upstream servers to improve response time. Web browsers cache previously accessed web resources and reuse them when possible to reduce network traffic. HTTP proxy servers at private network boundaries can facilitate communication for clients without a globally routable address, by relaying messages with external servers.

HTTP is an application layer protocol designed within the framework of the Internet Protocol Suite. Its definition presumes an underlying and reliable transport layer protocol,^[2] and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) predominates for this purpose. However HTTP can use unreliable protocols such as the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), for example in Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP).

HTTP resources are identified and located on the network by Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs)—or, more specifically, Uniform Resource Locators (URLs)—using the http or https URI schemes. URIs and hyperlinks in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) documents form webs of inter-linked hypertext documents. On the Internet the World Wide Web was established in 1990 by English computer scientist and innovator Tim Berners-Lee.

HTTP/1.1 is a revision of the original HTTP (HTTP/1.0). In HTTP/1.0 a separate connection to the same server is made for every resource request. HTTP/1.1 can reuse a connection multiple times to download images, scripts, stylesheets et cetera after the page has been delivered. HTTP/1.1 communications therefore experience less latency as the establishment of TCP connections presents considerable overhead.

History[link]

Tim Berners-Lee

The term HyperText was coined by Ted Nelson who in turn was inspired by Vannevar Bush's microfilm-based "memex". Tim Berners-Lee first proposed the "WorldWideWeb" project — now known as the World Wide Web. Berners-Lee and his team are credited with inventing the original HTTP along with HTML and the associated technology for a web server and a text-based web browser. The first version of the protocol had only one method, namely GET, which would request a page from a server.^[3] The response from the server was always an HTML page.^[4]

The first documented version of HTTP was HTTP V0.9 (1991). Dave Raggett led the HTTP Working Group (HTTP WG) in 1995 and wanted to expand the protocol with extended operations, extended negotiation, richer meta-information, tied with a security protocol which became more efficient by adding additional methods and header fields.^[5][6] RFC 1945 officially introduced and recognized HTTP V1.0 in 1996.

The HTTP WG planned to publish new standards in December 1995^[7] and the support for pre-standard HTTP/1.1 based on the then developing RFC 2068 (called HTTP-NG) was rapidly adopted by the major browser developers in early 1996. By March 1996, pre-standard HTTP/1.1 was supported in Arena,^[8] Netscape 2.0,^[8] Netscape Navigator Gold 2.01,^[8] Mosaic 2.7,^{[citation needed]} Lynx 2.5^{[citation needed]}, and in Internet Explorer 2.0^{[citation needed]}. End-user adoption of the new browsers was rapid. In March 1996, one web hosting company reported that over 40% of browsers in use on the Internet were HTTP 1.1 compliant.^{[citation needed]} That same web hosting company reported that by June 1996, 65% of all browsers accessing their servers were HTTP/1.1 compliant.^[9] The HTTP/1.1 standard as defined in RFC 2068 was officially released in January 1997. Improvements and updates to the HTTP/1.1 standard were released under RFC 2616 in June 1999.

HTTP session[link]

An HTTP session is a sequence of network request-response transactions. An HTTP client initiates a request by establishing a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection to a particular port on a server (typically port 80; see List of TCP and UDP port numbers). An HTTP server listening on that port waits for a client's request message. Upon receiving the request, the server sends back a status line, such as "HTTP/1.1 200 OK", and a message of its own. The body of this message is typically the requested resource, although an error message or other information may also be returned.^[1]

Request methods[link]

An HTTP request made using telnet. The request, response headers and response body are highlighted.

HTTP defines nine methods (sometimes referred to as "verbs") indicating the desired action to be performed on the identified resource. What this resource represents, whether pre-existing data or data that is generated dynamically, depends on the implementation of the server. Often, the resource corresponds to a file or the output of an executable residing on the server.

HEAD

Asks for the response identical to the one that would correspond to a GET request, but without the response body. This is useful for retrieving meta-information written in response headers, without having to transport the entire content.

GET

Requests a representation of the specified resource. Requests using GET should only retrieve data and should have no other effect. (This is also true of some other HTTP methods.)^[1] The W3C has published guidance principles on this distinction, saying, "Web application design should be informed by the above principles, but also by the relevant limitations."^[10] See safe methods below.

POST

Submits data to be processed (e.g., from an HTML form) to the identified resource. The data is included in the body of the request. This may result in the creation of a new resource or the updates of existing resources or both.

PUT

Uploads a representation of the specified resource.

DELETE

Deletes the specified resource.

TRACE

Echoes back the received request, so that a client can see what (if any) changes or additions have been made by intermediate servers.

OPTIONS

Returns the HTTP methods that the server supports for specified URL. This can be used to check the functionality of a web server by requesting '*' instead of a specific resource.

CONNECT

Converts the request connection to a transparent TCP/IP tunnel, usually to facilitate SSL-encrypted communication (HTTPS) through an unencrypted HTTP proxy.^[11]

PATCH

Is used to apply partial modifications to a resource.^[12]

HTTP servers are required to implement at least the GET and HEAD methods^[13] and, whenever possible, also the OPTIONS method.^{[citation needed]}

Safe methods[link]

Some methods (for example, HEAD, GET, OPTIONS and TRACE) are defined as safe, which means they are intended only for information retrieval and should not change the state of the server. In other words, they should not have side effects, beyond relatively harmless effects such as logging, caching, the serving of banner advertisements or incrementing a web counter. Making arbitrary GET requests without regard to the context of the application's state should therefore be considered safe.

By contrast, methods such as POST, PUT and DELETE are intended for actions that may cause side effects either on the server, or external side effects such as financial transactions or transmission of email. Such methods are therefore not usually used by conforming web robots or web crawlers; some that do not conform tend to make requests without regard to context or consequences.

Despite the prescribed safety of GET requests, in practice their handling by the server is not technically limited in any way. Therefore, careless or deliberate programming can cause non-trivial changes on the server. This is discouraged, because it can cause problems for Web caching, search engines and other automated agents, which can make unintended changes on the server.

Idempotent methods and web applications[link]

Methods PUT and DELETE are defined to be idempotent, meaning that multiple identical requests should have the same effect as a single request (Note that idempotence refers to the state of the system after the request has completed, so while the action the server takes (e.g. deleting a record) or the response code it returns may be different on subsequent requests, the system state will be the same every time.) Methods GET, HEAD, OPTIONS and TRACE, being prescribed as safe, should also be idempotent, as HTTP is a stateless protocol.^[1]

In contrast, the POST method is not necessarily idempotent, and therefore sending an identical POST request multiple times may further affect state or cause further side effects (such as financial transactions). In some cases this may be desirable, but in other cases this could be due to an accident, such as when a user does not realize that their action will result in sending another request, or they did not receive adequate feedback that their first request was successful. While web browsers may show alert dialog boxes to warn users in some cases where reloading a page may re-submit a POST request, it is generally up to the web application to handle cases where a POST request should not be submitted more than once.

Note that whether a method is idempotent is not enforced by the protocol or web server. It is perfectly possible to write a web application in which (for example) a database insert or other non-idempotent action is triggered by a GET or other request. Ignoring this recommendation, however, may result in undesirable consequences, if a user agent assumes that repeating the same request is safe when it isn't.

Security[link]

Implementing methods such as TRACE, TRACK and DEBUG is considered potentially insecure by some security professionals, because they can be used by attackers to gather information or bypass security controls during attacks. Security software tools such as Tenable Nessus and Microsoft URLScan report on the presence of these methods as being security issues.

Status codes[link]

In HTTP/1.0 and since, the first line of the HTTP response is called the status line and includes a numeric status code (such as "404") and a textual reason phrase (such as "Not Found"). The way the user agent handles the response primarily depends on the code and secondarily on the response headers. Custom status codes can be used since, if the user agent encounters a code it does not recognize, it can use the first digit of the code to determine the general class of the response.^[14]

Also, the standard reason phrases are only recommendations and can be replaced with "local equivalents" at the web developer's discretion. If the status code indicated a problem, the user agent might display the reason phrase to the user to provide further information about the nature of the problem. The standard also allows the user agent to attempt to interpret the reason phrase, though this might be unwise since the standard explicitly specifies that status codes are machine-readable and reason phrases are human-readable.

Persistent connections[link]

In HTTP/0.9 and 1.0, the connection is closed after a single request/response pair. In HTTP/1.1 a keep-alive-mechanism was introduced, where a connection could be reused for more than one request. Such persistent connections reduce request latency perceptibly, because the client does not need to re-negotiate the TCP connection after the first request has been sent. Another positive side effect is that in general the connection becomes faster with time due to TCP's slow-start-mechanism.

Version 1.1 of the protocol also made bandwidth optimization improvements to HTTP/1.0. For example, HTTP/1.1 introduced chunked transfer encoding to allow content on persistent connections to be streamed rather than buffered. HTTP pipelining further reduces lag time, allowing clients to send multiple requests before waiting for each response. Another improvement to the protocol was byte serving, where a server transmits just the portion of a resource explicitly requested by a client.

HTTP session state[link]

HTTP is a stateless protocol. A stateless protocol does not require the server to retain information or status about each user for the duration of multiple requests. For example, when a web server is required to customize the content of a web page for a user, the web application may have to track the user's progress from page to page. A common solution is the use of HTTP cookies. Other methods include server side sessions, hidden variables (when the current page contains a form), and URL-rewriting using URI-encoded parameters, e.g., /index.php?session_id=some_unique_session_code.

Secure HTTP[link]

There are three methods of establishing a secure HTTP connection: HTTP Secure, Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol and the HTTP/1.1 Upgrade header. Browser support for the latter two is, however, nearly non-existent,^{[citation needed]} so HTTP Secure is the dominant method of establishing a secure HTTP connection.

Request message[link]

The request message consists of the following:

• A request line, for example GET /images/logo.png HTTP/1.1, which requests a resource called /images/logo.png from the server.
• Headers, such as Accept-Language: en
• An empty line.
• An optional message body.

The request line and headers must all end with <CR><LF> (that is, a carriage return followed by a line feed). The empty line must consist of only <CR><LF> and no other whitespace.^[15] Although <CR><LF> is required <LF> alone is also accepted by most servers.^{[citation needed]} In the HTTP/1.1 protocol, all headers except Host are optional.

A request line containing only the path name is accepted by servers to maintain compatibility with HTTP clients before the HTTP/1.0 specification in RFC 1945.^[16]

Response message[link]

The response message consists of the following:

• A Status-Line (for example HTTP/1.1 200 OK, which indicates that the client's request succeeded)
• Headers, such as Content-Type: text/html
• An empty line
• An optional message body

The Status-Line and headers must all end with <CR><LF> (a carriage return followed by a line feed). The empty line must consist of only <CR><LF> and no other whitespace.^[17]

Example session[link]

Below is a sample conversation between an HTTP client and an HTTP server running on www.example.com, port 80.

Client request[link]

 GET /index.html HTTP/1.1␍␊
 Host: www.example.com␍␊
 ␍␊

A client request (consisting in this case of the request line and only one header) is followed by a blank line, so that the request ends with a double newline, each in the form of a carriage return followed by a line feed. The "Host" header distinguishes between various DNS names sharing a single IP address, allowing name-based virtual hosting. While optional in HTTP/1.0, it is mandatory in HTTP/1.1.

Server response[link]

 HTTP/1.1 200 OK
 Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 22:38:34 GMT
 Server: Apache/1.3.3.7 (Unix) (Red-Hat/Linux)
 Last-Modified: Wed, 08 Jan 2003 23:11:55 GMT
 Etag: "3f80f-1b6-3e1cb03b"
 Accept-Ranges:  none
 Content-Length: 438
 Connection: close
 Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

The ETag (entity tag) header is used to determine if a cached version of the requested resource is identical to the current version of the resource on the server. Content-Type specifies the Internet media type of the data conveyed by the HTTP message, while Content-Length indicates its length in bytes. The HTTP/1.1 webserver publishes its ability to respond to requests for certain byte ranges of the document by setting the header Accept-Ranges: bytes. This is useful, if the client needs to have only certain portions^[18] of a resource sent by the server, which is called byte serving. When Connection: close is sent in a header, it means that the web server will close the TCP connection immediately after the transfer of this response.

Most of the header lines are optional. When Content-Length is missing the length is determined in other ways. Chunked transfer encoding uses a chunk size of 0 to mark the end of the content. Identity encoding without Content-Length reads content until the socket is closed.

A Content-Encoding like gzip can be used to compress the transmitted data.

See also[link]

HTTP replacements or enhancements[link]

• Representational State Transfer (REST)
• SPDY - A HTTP enhancement proposed by Google
• Waka (protocol) - A HTTP replacement proposed by Roy Fielding
• HTTP-MPLEX - A backwards compatible enhancement to HTTP to improve page and web object retrieval time in congested networks proposed by Robert Mattson
• HTTP 2.0 - currently being worked on by the IETF's Hypertext Transfer Protocol Bis (httpbis) working group.^[19]
• Constrained Application Protocol - A semantically similar protocol to HTTP but used UDP or UDP-like messages targeted for devices with limited processing capability. Re-uses HTTP and other internet concepts like Internet media type and web linking (http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5988).

Further Information[link]

• Basic access authentication
• Content negotiation
• HTTP compression
• Hxxp

Related topics and technologies[link]

• Curl-loader - HTTP/S loading/testing open-source SW
• Digest access authentication
• List of file transfer protocols
• List of HTTP headers
• List of HTTP status codes
• Web cache
• WebDAV

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• HTTP 0.9 - As Implemented in 1991

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: HTTP

• "Change History for HTTP". W3.org. http://www.w3.org/Protocols/History.html. Retrieved 2010-08-01.  A detailed technical history of HTTP.
• "Design Issues for HTTP". W3.org. http://www.w3.org/Protocols/DesignIssues.html. Retrieved 2010-08-01.  Design Issues by Berners-Lee when he was designing the protocol.
• "Classic HTTP Documents". W3.org. 1998-05-14. http://www.w3.org/Protocols/Classic.html. Retrieved 2010-08-01.  list of other classic documents recounting the early protocol history

Manny Pacquiao
Pacquiao during the ceremonial first pitch at a baseball game
Statistics
Real name	Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao
Nickname(s)	Pac-Man, Ang Pambansang Kamao (The Nation's Fist), The Destroyer, Fighting Pride of the Philippines, Pambansang Ninong (National Godfather),[1] The Fighting Congressman[citation needed]
Rated at	Flyweight Super Bantamweight Featherweight Super Featherweight Lightweight Light Welterweight Welterweight Light Middleweight
Height	5 ft 6 1⁄2 in (1.69 m)[2]
Reach	67 in (170 cm)
Nationality	Filipino
Born	(1978-12-17) December 17, 1978 (age 33) Kibawe, Bukidnon, Philippines
Stance	Southpaw[3]
Boxing record
Total fights	59
Wins	54
Wins by KO	38
Losses	3
Draws	2
No contests	0 Official Site

Emmanuel "Manny" Dapidran Pacquiao, PLH (English pronunciation: /ˈpæki.aʊ/ PAK-ee-ow; Tagalog: [pɐkˈjaʊ];^[4] born December 17, 1978) is a Filipino professional boxer and politician. He is the first eight-division world champion; having won six world titles,^[5] as well as the first to win the lineal championship in four different weight classes.^[6] He was named "Fighter of the Decade" for the 2000s (decade) by the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA). He is also a three-time The Ring and BWAA "Fighter of the Year," winning the award in 2006, 2008 and 2009.^[7]

As of 2012, Pacquiao is the WBO Welterweight Champion. He was long rated as the best pound for pound boxer in the world by some sporting news and boxing websites, including BoxRec.com, Sporting Life and The Ring.^[8][9] However, in April 2012, Pacquiao dropped to number two in the rankings, behind Floyd Mayweather Jr.^[10] In their ratings ending May 7, 2012, Ring Magazine declared the top position vacant and jointly ranked Pacquiao and Mayweather in the number two spot.^[11]

Aside from boxing, Pacquiao has participated in acting, music recording and politics. In May 2010, Pacquiao was elected to the House of Representatives in the 15th Congress of the Philippines, representing the province of Sarangani.^[12]

Personal life[link]

Pacquiao was born on December 17, 1978, in Kibawe, Bukidnon, Philippines. He is the son of Rosalio Pacquiao and Dionesia Dapidran-Pacquiao.^[13] His parents separated when he was in sixth grade, after his mother discovered that his father was living with another woman.^[13] He is the fourth among six siblings: Liza Silvestre-Onding and Domingo Silvestre (from first husband of his mother) and Isidra Pacquiao-Paglinawan, Alberto "Bobby" Pacquiao and Rogelio Pacquiao.

Pacquiao is married to Maria Geraldine "Jinkee" Jamora,^[14] and they have four children: Emmanuel Jr. "Jimuel", Michael, Princess, and Queen Elizabeth "Queenie." He resides in his hometown General Santos City, South Cotabato, Philippines.^[15] However, as a congressman of lone district of Sarangani, he is officially residing in Kiamba, Sarangani, the hometown of his wife.

Pacquiao is a devout Roman Catholic.^[16] Within the ring, he frequently makes the sign of the cross and every time he comes back from a successful fight abroad, he attends a thanksgiving Mass in Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo, Manila to kneel and pray.

Pacquiao is also a military reservist with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Reserve Force of the Philippine Army.^[17]

Education[link]

Pacquiao completed his elementary education at Saavedra Saway Elementary School in General Santos City, but dropped out of high school due to extreme poverty.^[18] He left his home at age 14 because his mother, who had six children, was not making enough money to support her family.^[18]

In February 2007 he took, and passed, a high school equivalency exam making him eligible for college education.^[19] He was awarded with a high school diploma by the Department of Education. Pacquiao enrolled for a college degree in business management at Notre Dame of Dadiangas University (NDDU) in his hometown in General Santos City.

On February 18, 2009, Pacquiao was conferred the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humanities (Honoris Causa) by Southwestern University (SWU) at the Waterfront Hotel and Casino in Lahug, Cebu City in recognition of his boxing achievements and humanitarian work.^[20]

In preparation for his career as a lawmaker in the House of Representatives, Pacquiao enrolled in the Certificate Course in Development, Legislation and Governance at the Development Academy of the Philippines – Graduate School of Public and Development Management (DAP-GSPDM).^[21]

Amateur boxing career[link]

At the age of 14, Pacquiao moved to Manila and lived, for a time, on the streets. He started boxing and made the Philippine national amateur boxing team where his room and board were paid for by the government. Pacquiao reportedly had an amateur record of 64 fights (60–4).^[22]

Professional boxing career[link]

Light Flyweight[link]

In 1995, the death of a young aspiring boxer and close friend, Eugene Barutag, spurred the young Pacquiao to pursue a professional boxing career.^[23] Pacquiao started his professional boxing career when he was just 16 years of age, stood at 4'11'' and weighed 98 pounds (7 pounds under the minimumweight division). He admitted before American media that he put weights in his pockets to make the 105-pound weight limit.^[24] His early light flyweight division fights took place in small local venues and were shown on Vintage Sports' Blow by Blow, an evening boxing show. His professional debut was a four-round bout against Edmund "Enting" Ignacio, on January 22, 1995, which Pacquiao won via decision, becoming an instant star of the program.

Pacquiao's weight increased from 106 to 113 pounds before losing in his 12th bout against Rustico Torrecampo via a third-round knockout. Pacquiao failed to make the required weight, so he was forced to use heavier gloves than Torrecampo, thereby putting him at a disadvantage.^[25]

Flyweight[link]

Following the Torrecampo fight, Pacquiao continued undefeated for his next 15 fights. He went on another unbeaten run that saw him take on the vastly more experienced Chokchai Chockvivat in flyweight division. Pacquiao knocked out Chockvivat in the fifth round and took the OPBF Flyweight title.^[26] After one official defense and two non-title bouts, Pacquiao got his first opportunity to fight for a world title.

Pacquiao vs. Sasakul[link]

Pacquiao captured the Lineal and WBC Flyweight titles (his first major boxing world title) over Chatchai Sasakul by way of knockout in the eighth round. He defended the titles successfully against Mexican Gabriel Mira via a fourth-round technical knockout. However, Pacquiao lost the Lineal title in his second defense against Medgoen Singsurat, also known as Medgoen 3K Battery, via a third-round knockout. The bout was held in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand. Singsurat got Pacquiao on the ropes and landed a flush straight right to the body, coiling Pacquiao over and keeping him there. Pacquiao lost the WBC title at the scales, as he surpassed the weight limit of 112 pounds.

Super Bantamweight[link]

Pacquiao with his trainer Freddie Roach at Pacquiao's Christmas and birthday bash in Los Angeles

Following his loss to Singsurat, Pacquiao gained weight and skipped the super flyweight and bantamweight divisions. This time, Pacquiao went to super bantamweight, or junior featherweight, division of 122 pounds, where he picked up the WBC International Super Bantamweight title. He defended this title five times before his chance for a world title fight came. Pacquiao's big break came on June 23, 2001, against IBF Super Bantamweight title holder Lehlohonolo Ledwaba. Pacquiao stepped into the fight as a late replacement on two weeks' notice but won the fight by technical knockout to win the title, his second major boxing world title. The bout was held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Pacquiao went on to defend this title four times under head trainer Freddie Roach, owner of the famous Wild Card Gym in West Hollywood.

Featherweight[link]

Pacquiao vs. Barrera I[link]

On November 15, 2003, Pacquiao faced Marco Antonio Barrera at the Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas, in a fight that many consider to have defined his career. Pacquiao, who was fighting at featherweight for the first time, brought his power with him and defeated Barrera via technical knockout in the eleventh round, the only knockout loss in Barrera's career, and won the Lineal & The Ring Featherweight Championship, making him the first Filipino and Asian to become a three-division world champion, a fighter who won world titles in three different weight divisions. He defended the title twice before relinquishing it in 2005.^[27]

On November 24, 2003, the then Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo conferred on Pacquiao the Presidential Medal of Merit at the Ceremonial Hall of Malacañang Palace for his knockout victory over the best featherweight boxer of the world. The following day, the members of the House of Representatives of the Philippines presented the House Resolution No. 765, authored by the then House Speaker Jose De Venecia and Bukidnon Representative Juan Miguel Zubiri, which honored Pacquiao the Congressional Medal of Achievement for his exceptional achievements. Pacquiao is the first sportsman to receive such an honor from the House of Representatives.^[28][29]

Pacquiao vs. Marquez I[link]

Six months after the fight with Barrera, Pacquiao went on to challenge Juan Manuel Márquez, who at the time held both the WBA and IBF Featherweight titles. The fight took place at the MGM Grand Arena, Las Vegas, on May 8, 2004. After twelve rounds, the bout was scored a draw, which proved to be a controversial decision that outraged both camps.^[30]

In the first round, Márquez was caught cold, as he was knocked down three times by Pacquiao. However, Márquez showed great heart to recover from the early knockdowns and went on to win the majority of rounds thereafter. This was largely due to Márquez's counterpunch style, which he managed to effectively utilize against the aggressive style of Pacquiao. At the end of a very close fight, both boxers felt they had done enough to win the fight. The final scores were 115–110 for Márquez, 115–110 for Pacquiao and 113–113.^[30] One of the judges (who scored the bout 113–113) later admitted to making an error on the scorecards, having scored the first round as 10–7 in favor of Pacquiao instead of the standard 10–6 for a three-knockdown round. If he had scored the round 10–6 for Pacquiao (as the other two judges did), the result would have been a split decision in favor of Pacquiao.^[30]

Super Featherweight[link]

Pacquiao vs. Morales I[link]

On March 19, 2005, Pacquiao moved up in super featherweight, or junior lightweight, division of 130 pounds, in order to fight another Mexican legend and three-division world champion Érik Morales for the vacant WBC International and vacant IBA Super Featherweight titled. The fight took place at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas. In this fight, Pacquiao sustained a cut over his right eye from an accidental clash of heads in the fifth round. He lost the twelve-round match by a unanimous decision from the judges. All three scorecards read 115–113 for Morales.^[31]

Pacquiao vs. Velázquez[link]

On September 10, 2005, Manny Pacquiao knocked out in six rounds Héctor Velázquez at Staples Center in Los Angeles to capture the WBC International Super Featherweight title, which he went on to defend five times. On the same day, his rival, Érik Morales, fought Zahir Raheem and lost via unanimous decision.

Pacquiao vs. Morales II[link]

Despite Morales's loss to Raheem, Pacquiao got matched up against Morales in a rematch which took place on January 21, 2006 at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. During the fight, Morales escaped being knocked down twice, once in the second round by holding onto the ropes and once in the sixth by falling on the referee. Pacquiao eventually knocked Morales out in the tenth, the first time Morales was knocked out in his boxing career.^[32]

Pacquiao vs. Larios[link]

On July 2, 2006, Pacquiao defended his WBC International title against Óscar Larios, a two-time Super Bantamweight Champion who had moved up two weight divisions to fight Pacquiao. Pacquiao won the fight via unanimous decision, knocking down Larios two times in the 12-round bout at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, Philippines. The three judges scored the fight 117–110, 118–108 and 120–106 all for Pacquiao.^[33]

On July 3, 2006, the day after winning the fight against Larios, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo personally bestowed the Order of Lakandula with the rank of "Champion for Life" (Kampeon Habambuhay) and the plaque of appreciation to Pacquiao in a simple ceremony at the Rizal Hall of Malacañang Palace.^[34]

Pacquiao vs. Morales III[link]

Pacquiao and Morales fought a third time (with the series tied 1–1) on November 18, 2006. Witnessed by a near record crowd of 18,276, the match saw Pacquiao defeat Morales via a third-round knockout at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.^[35] Morales' knockout losses to Pacquiao are the only knockout losses in his professional career. After the Pacquiao–Morales rubber match, Bob Arum, Pacquiao's main promoter, announced that Manny had returned his signing bonus back to Golden Boy Promotions, signaling intentions to stay with Top Rank. This prompted Golden Boy Promotions to sue Pacquiao over breach of contract.^[36]

Pacquiao vs. Solis[link]

After a failed promotional negotiation with Marco Antonio Barrera's camp, Bob Arum chose Jorge Solís as Pacquiao's next opponent among several fighters Arum offered as replacements. The bout was held in San Antonio, Texas, on April 14, 2007. In the sixth round, an accidental headbutt occurred, giving Pacquiao a cut under his left eyebrow. The fight ended in the eighth when Pacquiao knocked Solis down twice. Solis barely beat the count after the second knockdown, causing the referee to stop the fight and award Pacquiao a knockout win. The victory raised Pacquiao's win–loss–draw record to 44–3–2 with 34 knockouts. This also marked the end of Solis's undefeated streak.

Pacquiao vs. Barrera II[link]

On June 29, 2007, Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions announced that they agreed to settle their lawsuit, meaning the long-awaited rematch with Marco Antonio Barrera would occur despite Pacquiao being the top-ranked contender for Juan Manuel Márquez's WBC Super Featherweight title. On October 6, 2007, Pacquiao defeated Barrera in their rematch via an easy unanimous decision. In the eleventh round, Pacquiao's punch caused a deep cut below Barrera's right eye. Barrera retaliated with an illegal punch on the break that dazed Pacquiao, but also resulted in a point deduction for Barrera. Two judges scored the bout 118–109, whereas the third scored it 115–112.^[37]

In The Ring Magazine, Pacquiao (45–3–2) remained at the top of the super featherweight division (130 pounds). He had been in the ratings for 108 weeks.^[38][39] On November 13, 2007, he was honored by the World Boxing Council as Emeritus Champion during its 45th Annual World Convention held at the Manila Hotel.^[40]

On November 20, 2007, José Nuñez, manager of WBO Super Featherweight Champion Joan Guzmán, accused Pacquiao's handler Bob Arum of evading a match between the two boxers to protect Pacquiao.^[41] Guzmán went as far as to directly call out Pacquiao at the postfight press conference of the Pacquiao–Barrera rematch in front of the crowd at the Mandalay Bay Events Center's media room in Las Vegas.^[42]

Pacquiao vs. Marquez II[link]

On March 15, 2008, in a rematch against Juan Manuel Márquez, called "Unfinished Business," Pacquiao won via split decision. The fight was held at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. With the victory, Pacquiao won the WBC Super Featherweight and The Ring Super Featherweight titles, making him the first Filipino and Asian to become a four-division world champion, a fighter who won world titles in four different weight divisions. The fight was a close hard fought battle, during which both fighters received cuts.^[43] Throughout the fight, Márquez landed the most punches at a higher percentage; however, the decisive factor proved to be a third-round knockdown, wherein Márquez was floored by a Pacquiao left hook.^[43] At the end of the fight, the judges' scores were 115–112 for Pacquiao, 115–112 for Márquez and 114–113 for Pacquiao.^[43]

In the post-fight news conference, Márquez’s camp called for an immediate rematch. In addition, Richard Schaefer, Golden Boy Promotions CEO, offered a $6 million guarantee to Pacquiao for a rematch.^[44] However, Pacquiao ruled out a third clash with Márquez, saying, "I don't think so. This business is over."^[43] The reason that Pacquiao did not want a rematch was because he intended to move up to the lightweight division to challenge David Díaz, the reigning WBC Lightweight title holder at that time.^[43] Díaz won a majority decision over Ramón Montano that night as an undercard of the "Unfinished Business" fight.

Lightweight[link]

Pacquiao vs. Díaz[link]

On June 28, 2008, at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Pacquiao defeated David Díaz in lightweight division via ninth-round knockout and won the WBC Lightweight title. With the victory, Pacquiao became the first and only Filipino and Asian to become a five-division world champion, a fighter who won world titles in five different weight divisions,^[45] and also became the first Filipino fighter to ever win a world title at lightweight.^[46] During the fight, which Pacquiao dominated, Díaz was cut badly on his right eye in the fourth round.^[47] After the bout, Díaz acknowledged Pacquiao's superior hand speed, stating "It was his speed. It was all his speed. I could see the punches perfectly, but he was just too fast."^[48]

Bob Arum reported that the fight had made 12.5 million dollars, earning Díaz his best payday of 850,000 dollars, whilst Pacquiao earned at least 3 million dollars.^[45] Official records revealed an attendance of 8,362 (out of a maximum capacity of 12,000).^[49]

Holding both the WBC Super Featherweight and Lightweight titles following the win, Pacquiao decided to vacate his super featherweight title in July 2008.^[50]

On August 7, 2008, the members of the House of Representatives of the Philippines issued a House Resolution, sponsored by South Cotabato Congresswoman Darlene Antonino-Custodio, which recognized Pacquiao as a "People’s Champ" — "for his achievements and in appreciation of the honor and inspiration he has been bringing... to the Filipino people." He received a plaque from the then House Speaker Prospero Nograles.^[51]

Welterweight[link]

Pacquiao vs. De La Hoya[link]

On December 6, 2008, Pacquiao moved up to the welterweight division in order to face the six-division world champion Oscar De La Hoya at the MGM Grand, in a fight called "The Dream Match." Presented by Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank, the bout was scheduled as a twelve-round, non-title fight contested at the 147-pound welterweight limit. Although Pacquiao went into the fight widely recognized as the leading pound-for-pound boxer in the world, some boxing pundits had speculated that 147 pounds could be too far above his natural weight against the larger De La Hoya.^[52] However, due to rehydration after the weigh in, De La Hoya came into the fight actually weighing less than Pacquiao and close to 20 pounds under his usual fighting weight. Pacquiao dominated the fight and, after eight rounds, De La Hoya's corner was forced to throw in the towel, awarding Pacquiao the win via technical knockout.^[53]

Pacquiao was ahead on all three judges' scorecards before the stoppage, with two judges scoring the fight at 80–71 and one scoring it at 79–72.^[54] Moreover, Pacquiao landed 224 out of 585 punches, whilst De La Hoya landed only 83 out of 402 punches.^[54] After the bout, trainer Freddie Roach stated, "We knew we had him after the first round. He had no legs, he was hesitant and he was shot."^[55] The fight would be De La Hoya's last, as he announced his retirement from boxing shortly after.^[56]

Pacquiao received 15 to 30 million dollars (share of the pay-per-view), plus a guaranteed amount.^[57] Tickets reportedly sold out just hours after they went on sale. Moreover, the total gate revenue for the fight was said to be nearly 17 million dollars, making it the second largest gate revenue in boxing history.^[58]

On December 22, 2008, Pacquiao has been decorated with the Philippine Legion of Honor with the rank of "Officer" (Pinuno) in a ceremony marking the 73rd founding anniversary of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. As an army reservist, he was given recognition for bringing pride and honor to the country through his remarkable achievements in the ring.^[59]

Light Welterweight[link]

Pacquiao vs. Hatton[link]

Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton with their trainers at the Trafford Centre

On May 2, 2009, Pacquiao fought at light welterweight, or super lightweight, division for the first time against Ricky Hatton at the MGM Grand Las Vegas, in a fight billed as "The Battle of the East and West." Pacquiao won the bout via knockout to claim Hatton's The Ring and IBO Light Welterweight titles. In doing so, Pacquiao became the second man in boxing history to become a six-division world champion, a fighter who won world titles in six different weight divisions and the first man ever to win lineal world titles in four different weight classes.^[60]

The fight was originally placed in jeopardy due to disputes with both camps over the fight purse money.^[61] Eventually, the money issue was settled and the fight went on as scheduled. HBO aired the contest.^[62]

Pacquiao started the fight strong, knocking down Hatton twice in the first round.^[63] A somewhat shaken Hatton beat the count, only to be saved by the bell seconds later. In the second round, Hatton seemed to have recovered, as he stalked Pacquiao for most of the round. However, with less than ten seconds remaining in the second round, Hatton was knocked out cold by a sharp left hook, prompting the referee to award Pacquiao the win by knockout (at 2:59 of the round).^[64] The knockout won him the The Ring Magazine "Knockout of the Year" for 2009.

Return to welterweight[link]

Pacquiao vs. Cotto[link]

On November 14, 2009, Pacquiao defeated Miguel Cotto via technical knockout in the twelfth round at the MGM Grand Las Vegas in a fight billed as "Firepower." Although the bout was sanctioned as a world title fight in the welterweight division, where the weight limit is 147 pounds, Cotto agreed to fight at a catchweight of 145 pounds.^[65]

Pacquiao dominated the fight, knocking Cotto down in round three and round four, before the referee stopped the fight at 0:55 of round twelve.^[66] With this victory, Pacquiao took the WBO Welterweight title, was awarded the WBO Super Championship title and became the first seven-division world champion, the first fighter in boxing history to win world titles in seven different weight divisions.^[67] Pacquiao also won the first and special WBC Diamond Championship belt.^[68] This belt was created as an honorary championship exclusively to award the winner of a historic fight between two high-profile boxers.^[69] After the fight, promoter Bob Arum stated "Pacquiao is the greatest boxer I've ever seen, and I've seen them all, including Ali, Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard."^[70] Miguel Cotto said in a post fight interview: "Miguel Cotto comes to boxing to fight the biggest names, and Manny is one of the best boxers we have of all time."

The fight generated 1.25 million buys and $70 million in domestic pay-per-view revenue, making it the most watched boxing event of 2009.^[71] Pacquiao earned around $22 million for his part in the fight, whilst Cotto earned around $12 million.^[71] Pacquiao–Cotto also generated a live gate of $8,847,550 from an official crowd of 15,930.^[71]

On November 20, 2009, in a simple rites at the Quirino Grandstand, President Macapagal-Arroyo conferred Pacquiao the Order of Sikatuna with the rank of Datu (Grand Cross) with Gold distinction (Katangiang Ginto) which usually bestowed to foreign diplomats and heads of state. It was awarded to Pacquiao for winning his historical seventh weight division world title.^[72]

Following the victory against Cotto, there was much public demand for a fight between the seven-division world champion Manny Pacquiao (the number-one pound-for-pound boxer) and the five-division world champion Floyd Mayweather, Jr. (the number-two and former number-one pound-for-pound boxer). Pacquiao reportedly agreed to fight Mayweather on March 13, 2010 for a split of $50 million up front.^[73] And it was later agreed that the venue for the fight would be the MGM Grand Las Vegas. However, the bout was put in jeopardy due to disagreements about Olympic-style drug testing. The Mayweather camp wanted random blood testing by the United States Anti-Doping Agency,^[74] whereas Pacquiao refused to have any blood testing within 30 days from the fight, because he thought it would weaken him, but he was willing to have blood taken from him before the 30-day window as well as immediately after the fight.^[75] Freddie Roach, on the other hand, commented that he would not allow blood to be taken from Pacquiao one week before the fight.^[76][77] In an attempt to resolve their differences, the two camps went through a process of mediation before a retired judge. After the mediation process Mayweather agreed to a 14-day no blood testing window. However, Pacquiao refused and instead only agreed to a 24-day no blood testing window.^[78] Consequently, on January 7, 2010, Pacquiao's promoter Bob Arum declared that the fight was officially off.^[79]

Because of Pacquiao's reluctance to submit to random blood testing to the extent requested by Mayweather, despite lack of evidence, the Mayweather camp repeated their suggestion that Pacquiao was using banned substances, which resulted in Pacquiao filing a lawsuit for defamation, seeking damages in excess of 75,000 dollars.^[80] The lawsuit cited accusations made by Floyd Mayweather, Jr., Floyd Mayweather Sr., Roger Mayweather, Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer.^[80][81]

Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey shortly after the weigh in for their fight in Dallas, Texas. In the background are Bob Arum and Jerry Jones

After negotiations for the Mayweather fight fell through, other boxers were considered to replace Mayweather as Pacquiao's next opponent, including former Light Welterweight Champion Paul Malignaggi,^[82] and WBA Light Middleweight title holder Yuri Foreman.^[83] However, Pacquiao chose to fight former IBF Welterweight title holder Joshua Clottey instead.

Pacquiao vs. Clottey[link]

On March 13, 2010, at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Pacquiao defeated Clottey via unanimous decision to retain his WBO Welterweight title. The judges scored the fight 120–108, 119–109 and 119–109, all in favor of Pacquiao.^[84] During the fight, Pacquiao threw a total of 1231 punches (a career high), but landed just 246, as most were blocked by Clottey's tight defense. On the other hand, Clottey threw a total of 399 punches, landing 108.^[85]

The fight was rewarded with a paid crowd of 36,371 and a gate of $6,359,985, according to post-fight tax reports filed with Texas boxing regulators.^[86] Counting complimentary tickets delivered to sponsors, media outlets and others, the Dallas fight attracted 41,843,^[86] well short of the 50,994 that was previously announced,^[87] but still an epic number for boxing. In addition, the bout drew 700,000 pay-per-view buys and earned $35.3 million in domestic revenue.^[88]