A FEW days before Time’s issue with Manny Pacquiao on the cover got displayed in news stands, the Filipino boxer was guest in the US TV show “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

Pacquiao is fighting Puerto Rican welterweight champ Miguel Cotto this Sunday, so one can say this is part of the media hype concocted by Bob Arum of Top Rank Promotions.

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Arum masterminded the transformation of boxing’s “Golden Boy” Oscar de la Hoya from a popular boxer to one whose appeal transcended the sport itself.

But even if you subtract the marketing factor from Pacquiao’s popularity, you will still have one whose fame is not only growing but has started to cross international divides and beyond the bounds of boxing itself.

If he beats Cotto, some analysts are even willing to concede to him the distinction of being one of the top five greatest boxers of all-time, which is many steps up from his current top pound-for-pound categorization.

What makes that noteworthy is that Pacquiao is Filipino to the bone.

Rags to riches

In the Jimmy Kimmel show, Pacquiao groped for words and needed an assist from the host so the viewers could make sense out of his ungrammatical English and thick Visayan accent.

He sang Dan Hill’s classic “Sometimes When We Touch” passably although he pronounced the English words like the many who have been the butt of jokes of a segment of the Filipino elite for decades.

But Pacquiao’s rise to international fame and with it his acquisition of wealth was not because he spoke fluently but because his fists did the talking.

And that rise is very Filipino, considering the circumstances the Philippines is in.

That is even the point that every edition of HBO’s award winning boxing documentary “24/7” does not tire of mentioning: rags to riches.

Pride and shame

Pacquiao’s popularity can be attributed to the excitement that he provides in his fights, and the daring with which he took the sports big names – Oscar de la Hoya and Ricky Hatton most recently—and triumph.

But a good chunk of the fame could also be from drama, like his symbolizing the hopes and dreams of his poverty-stricken countrymen.

In Pacquiao, the world got a closer look of our country, its people’s valiant effort to survive and its leaders’ failings.

His ascent to the top is therefore a source of both pride and shame.