GENERAL SANTOS — Philippine boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao says he has given up gambling, cockfighting and other vices to become a goodwill ambassador for the Catholic church.

Pacquiao, one of the richest men in the Philippines and a national icon, also announced that he had sold his shares in a Manila casino, and in a nightclub and a bar, while also giving away all his fighting cocks to friends.

“I am no longer in the vice business,” the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet told reporters in a recent interview in the southern Philippines. The eight-time world champion had owned more than a thousand roosters worth more than R5,3 million. — Sapa-AFP.