Will the son also rise?

Commentary

MANILA, Philippines — He wants to follow in the footsteps of the illustrious champ, willing to go through the physical “mayhem” that marked this sport to prove he is his father’s son.

And Jimuel Pacquiao, 19, even took some of the highlights of his dad Manny Pacquiao in training at the Wild Card gym in Los Angeles last week as he worked the mitts one time and slugged it out before a gaggle of excited fans.

Is he for real?

Is he aware that climbing the ring could fetch unimagined pain and torment from rivals raring to inflict severe harm particularly to a Pacquiao?

Jimuel knows it will be a perilous journey

But confident “his passion for boxing” – pedigree, bloodline and all – would give his young career the boost despite virulent objection from his parents.

“It’s my passion,” said Jimuel.

He made a respectable start in the amateur rank, racking up three straight wins and looking forward for more fights under the tutelage of his father.

“He doesn’t have to go into boxing,” Pacman, on the final leg of heavy workout for his Las Vegas title bout with American Keith Thurman, told ABS-CBN.

But Jimuel is keen on building up a career despite tremendous odds on top of living up to the image of his generation’s boxing icon, an eight-time division titlist.

It would be a pesky presence in his mind as long as he is into the prizefight.

There were successful father-son duos in the past – the Mayweathers and Joe Frazier and son Marvis, to name two, but these are rare in the fight game overall scheme.

Pacman also dreads the nights he would be watching his son being pounded and mauled – a role he relishes through the years (Ako ang nambubugbog).

And Jimuel should be aware that the only thing constant in pugilism is the unrelenting bid to impose one’s will on the other guy.

And then there’s the question of being borne to glamour and glitz or to grinding poverty.

The young Pacman may have the passion for boxing or – whip up the blood to have the mental and physical toughness to hurt and be hurt in an explosive mix of primal violence dished out in the ring.

The father had gone through this to be the best in the world, fueled by a mission rooted in his soul.

And he is anxious the fusillade of blows would be too much for Jimuel – blows that would not be launched from a base somewhere in the lighted metropolis and exclusive schools but in his father’s troubled South still reeling from decades of civil strife and reeking with the blood and sweat of the poor.