By: Sean Crose
What’s in a name? A whole lot if that name is Pacquiao. Just ask Jimuel Pacquiao, son of the great Manny Pacquiao. A well spoken, likeable young man, the junior Pacquiao will be making his professional ring debut Saturday night in Temecula, California. Pacquiao was supposed to be making his debut on the the same card as his famous father a few months back when Pacquiao impressed in a comeback battle against Mario Barios. Those plans may have fallen through due to the younger Pacquiao sustaining an injury. Now, however, the 24 year old is eager to make his own mark on the fight game.
“I’ve been wanting to for a while,” Pacquiao told Fight Hub’s Marcos Villegas, “but I have a real good team and they always make sure that I’m ready.” And what about the team at home? “My parents are scared, of course,” he admitted. Indeed, he said his father won’t stop giving me pointers on what to do.” This makes sense of course, but on Saturday, Pacquiao will be on his own when he faces Chicago high school English teacher Brendan Lally, who also be making his professional debut. “I knew,” Lally told CBS, “if I passed up this opportunity to do something so incredible, the coolest thing in the world, to me, on the coolest stage possible, I knew I would regret it,”
Like Pacquiao, Lally comes from a boxing background, which makes the interesting pairing of a legend’s son and a high school educator all the more interesting. With that being said, Pacquiao, who is being trained by Marvin Somodio, has a top notch team behind him. Somodio is the protege of Pacquiao’s famed trainer Freddie Roach, after all. As things stand, the plan is to successfully guide the younger Pacquiao along, one step at a time.
“Right now we’re taking it by fight,” Pacquiao told Villegas. “We’ll see how far I can get.” Although it’s hard to imagine most anyone achieving what Pacquiao’s father has, it’s worth noting that some fighters have successfully emerged from the reputations of their own fathers. Floyd Mayweather senior and Floyd Mayweather Jr. come to mind. An interesting but little spoken aspect of boxing is that the the fighter’s opponent is often himself. Although we can’t look inside the younger Pacquiao’s mind, we can assume he doesn’t need to box due to the financial success of his family. Yet he’ll still be slipping in between the ropes on Saturday to face another man who obviously doesn’t need to box.
No doubt each fighter will have much to prove to himself.
