From Zero to Hero

Few boxing fans were surprised when, less than a minute into the fight, Manny Pacquiao fell to the canvas. The 57-kg Filipino was matched up against Marco Antonio Barrera, widely considered one of the best boxers in the world. Pacquiao was tough — he had brawled his way to two previous titles in two different weight classes — but he was relatively inexperienced. A low-profile Filipino known in the U.S. by the decidedly unthreatening nickname "Pac-Man," he was fighting the biggest bout of his career in front of more than 10,000 hostile spectators in San Antonio, Texas. The HBO TV announcers...