Manny Pacquiao painted as icon through the inspired eyes of David Drebin photography

David Dreben fell in love with boxing because of Manny Pacquiao. And with his genius eye, boxing loves Dreben.

If you don't know Drebin's work, spend five minutes surfing through his website.

See ? He's full of joy. The way he plays with light, his eye for beauty, and tenacity to experiment with the world according to DD. He's created a book of images of Manny Pacquiao which are set to become iconic.

It all happened by chance. "I took this photograph the moment after Manny knocked out Ricky Hatton – I was on assignment for ESPN Magazine but I was so enamoured with the fight, so into it, I forgot to take pictures…so I was up in the raised platform because there were not enough seats at ringside. When the fight was ending I thought 'Oh my God, I've got no photographs…'

I took one frame. This was the only frame I took of the fight. And I looked at this photograph – I'm not a boxing photographer, I'm more of an art photographer, so I looked at this picture and I had goosebumps instantly. The world has to see this picture. I took the picture, I made it 60 x 80 inches I put it up with one of my dealers, people in boxing will see this picture and I will become the boxing photographer for all the big fights. I just knew…"

"It's crazy. One of dealers sends Todd Deboeuf, who loves the picture. I didn't know he was, but we started exchanging emails and he was like, I've got to have that picture. He's in the picture. Then, he was like who the hell are you ? He came to New York, we bonded, and since then I do all the ad pictures."

"This is my fifth book, but I think the world needs this book. There's a version for the fans, I had access to him, the photos are for his fans. The light is amazing in the Wild Card Gym…I'm obsessed with boxing.