Boxing Champion Manny Pacquiao
Boxing Champion Manny Pacquiao competes in the MP CUP International 10-ball Singles and Doubles Tournament in General Santos City, Philippines. C.Caparras

Filipino boxing champion Manny Pacquiao has confirmed his intention to revive the World 10-ball Championship in The Philippines. The Congressman is determined to make his home town of General Santos City the pool capital of the world and he believes that bringing back the event will be the key to reaching his goal.

One of the most accomplished boxers of all time, Congressman Pacquiao is also a skilled player on the pool table. He is able to compete in the professional level and has recently started staging professional tournaments in General Santos City or Gensan.

After another successful tournament which took place on Dec. 8-17, Congressman Pacquiao has decided to raise the level and prestige of his tournaments by getting sanctioned by the World Pool-Billiard Association and turning it into a real World Championship. The World 10-ball Championship is slated to take place on Feb. 18-22 with open qualifiers on Feb 14-17. The World Championship will be offering a total prize purse of 200,000 US Dollars with 40,000 US Dollars going to the eventual World Champion. A doubles division will take place right after the World Championship and is scheduled on Feb. 23-27. The 27th falls on a local holiday called "Araw ng Gensan (Day of Gensan)."

Back in September, Gensan hosted over a hundred local and international pool professionals in the first staging of the Manny Pacquiao Cup International Singles and Doubles 10-ball Tournament. The event features a singles and a doubles division and offered a total prize pot of 150,000 US Dollars.

The second staging of the MP Cup which took place last week saw Pacquiao back on the pool table and he impressed fans and his co-players with his performances during the tournament. In the singles division, his most notable performance involved knocking out Brunei's number one player out of the tournament. Ahmad Taufiq competes in the Southeast Asian Games and is a regular touring professional. Pacquiao took him out with a score of 9-8. Pacquiao eventually bowed out of the tournament after losing to Filipino cue artist Jomel Sultan.

In the doubles division, Pacquiao teamed up with Wold 8-ball and 9-ball Champion Ronnie Alcano. The pair made it all the way to the top 16 of the competition in a 69-team field. It was an impressive finish for a man who does not play professional pool. The Pacquiao-Alcano tanded did better than Efren Reyes and Francisco Bustamante who are not only legends in their own right but are also two-time World Cup of Pool Scotch Doubles Champions.