MANNY Pacquiao’ s welterweight title fight against Lucas Matthysse almost didn’t push through.

In a shocking disclosure made less than a week after Pacquiao kayoed Matthysse to win the World Boxing Association (WBA) version of the 147-lbs. belt, the Filipino boxing legend disclosed he was rushed to the hospital due to difficulty in breathing a day before his team was to depart for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

It turned out the 39-year-old fighting senator was suffering from an inborn heart condition that prompted doctors at Cardinal Santos Hospital to ask the boxing champion to postpone his fight with Matthysse.

“But I told them, don’t worry, I’ll be okay and I’ll do everything to win the fight,” Pacquiao’s Press Information Officer (PIO) Aquiles Zonio recalled in a story.

Pacquiao had to make an emergency flight to Manila on the afternoon of July 8 and went straight to the hospital to have his heart checked.

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Only five members of Pacquiao’s inner circle went with him, according to Zonio, as the eighth-time world division champion didn’t want to disclose his condition to his immediate family and members of his team.

Wife Jinkee and their children went to Malaysia a week ahead of Pacquiao via Singapore.

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Pacquiao underwent an angiogram procedure at the hospital where his heart ailment was discovered.

“I was required to run on a thread mill then an ECG was conducted. The result was quite amazing. The result showed that my heart rate and rhythm improve as my physical activity increases,” Pacquiao related.

Still, doctors were concerned about his condition that they only let Pacquiao checked out of the hospital upon signing a waiver.

Pacquiao and his small team left for General Santos in the early morning of July 9. Later in the afternoon, his entourage proceeded to the Malaysian capital on a chartered Philippine Airlines flight.

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Almost a week after arriving in Malaysia, Pacquiao was world champion again after knocking Matthysse down three times on the way to a seventh-round stoppage of the dethroned Argentine.

“Buboy cried hard upon learning about what happened. But I told him to stay strong and continue what he was doing,” said Pacquiao about his longtime childhood friend and now head trainer.

“God will take care of the rest.”

Indeed, He did.