Emmanuel ‘Jimuel’ Pacquiao, the eldest son of legendary boxer Manny Pacquiao has been in amateur boxing for a while now. However, after being unbeaten in his first three bouts, he suffered a defeat.
Training and competing in the US, Jimuel started his career smoothly with three straight victories. He is trained by his father’s head coach and Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach in the Wild Card gym.
Recently, Jimuel faced Irish Center’s Chris Smith in San Fransisco.
It’s said that Jimuel was involved in some heavy exchanges during the bout and fought valiantly until the end. But despite the effort, it seems that the judges don’t think that Jimuel did enough as he was outpointed by Smith.
There was an upset last night at Fire in the Ring’s Amateur Fight Night 2 when PRO DEBUTER Chris Smith took the 0 from now 3-1 Manny Pacquiao Jr @IrishCenterSF 💨 pic.twitter.com/7xIqXeAbwO
— BoxingMeetsBeauty (@BoxingMBeauty) June 26, 2022
Even though handed a setback, Jimuel keeps his chin high as fighting in the pro ranks is still his dream.
“At first, I was just quietly going into it and stuff, but I guess it’s unavoidable. I’m trying my best. I have to get used to it,” he said.
“I’ve constantly been training. I’ve been training for months [in the US], and this is all I want: get more experience, get better. “I think we’ll see in the future whether I will turn professional. Right now, I’m just trying to get better, to get more amateur fights, bring my record so we’ll see in the future.”
Although seemingly supported by his father, Pacquiao once admitted that he don’t want to see his son fighting. However, Jimuel successfully convinced the eight-division champion to let him box.
“If you ask me, I wouldn’t want him to become a boxer. Because I can’t stand watching my son fight,” Pacquiao said in an interview.
“But when I tell him about it, he tells me, ‘Daddy, boxing is your passion, right?’”
“‘Same with me, like you, boxing is my passion also. So what are we going to do?’ – I become speechless.”
While still in the amateur ranks, his status as the son of one of boxing’s greatest champions surely has some of its perks. One of them is getting invited to train with big-time boxers.
Last October, he was invited to Eddy Reynoso’s gym to train alongside one of the pound-for-pound greats, Canelo Alvarez.