Boxing World Braces for a “Bad Night for the Pacquiaos” Amid Son’s Pro Debut Rumors in Undercard

If Manny Pacquiao coming back to fight the WBC welterweight champ, Mario Barrios, four years after retirement, it was a surprise to boxing fans. Another update would surely make the eight-division boxing champion’s return event one to remember. Headlining in the main event, the 46-year-old is set to face a fresher generation who is in his prime on July 19 in Las Vegas. Last time out, the fans saw PacMan lost to Yordenis Ugas and announced a month later that it was time he left the sport.

During his time away from the gloves, he focused on building a political career, serving as the Senator of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. Now that the to-be Hall of Famer has lost a seat in the Senate elections just days ago, he is fully focused on preparing for the matchup. Most fans expressed their concern when the 62-8 southpaw boxer’s training clip came out. Some thought that he was still as sharp and speedy, while others were disappointed about a legend like him having to fight out of their prime for money.

Surprisingly, Pacquiao would not be alone on Thursday night a month from today. Reports from World Boxing News suggest that his son, Emmanuel Pacquiao Jr., better known as Jimuel, might make his professional debut fighting on the undercard. Until now, Jr. has fought ten amateur bouts, losing four of them consecutively. Though his trainer and father’s friend, Marvin Somodo, believes that Pacquiao Jr. has a good work ethic and is improving every day, odds are, it won’t be a promising night for the Pacquiaos. Using WBA as a source, a user on Reddit by the name of u/VioletHappySmile444 posted in the subreddit r/Boxing about the news.

“Emmanuel Pacquiao Jr to potentially make pro-debut on Manny Pacquiao V.S Mario Barrios undercard,” the post captioned, with a collage of three images linked along. Two of them were posters of the Pacquiao vs. Barios main event, while one featured the legendary Filipino’s son, with his trainer, Somodo helping Jimuel strap on his headgear. What followed below this was a series of 38 comments, and to be honest, it didn’t look so good for the father-son duo.

Purists go pessimistic predicting Manny Pacquiao and Jr.’s bouts

One of the Redditors wrote, “⁠Last time I saw clip of pacman jr he wasn’t looking too hot in the amateur. Feels like he’s just boxing for the fame trickle down from his dad and to look cool.” It was a reference to Jr.’s bout against Adan Cazares in January last year. The American opponent was just debuting and the audience at Sweet Science Boxing Gym, Hawthorne, witnessed the then-22-year-old lose to a fighter four years younger than him in three rounds. This makes it likely that the pro-debut would be hard for junior.

Another person commented, “⁠I wonder who will look worse.” In just a few words, the critic question-marked on both Pacquiao and his son’s careers. For Jimuel, it’s the pressure of living up to his father’s 26 years of legacy, whereas for Manny Pacquiao himself, it’s the risk of losing everything that he’s built until now, just like Mike Tyson suffered after losing to Jake Paul last year. Barrios is 29 years old, and in his prime, ready to take down whoever comes to have a shot at his world title belt, especially an inactive boxer.

Following the opinions, one more user dropped in with, “So this going to be 2 pacquiao losses in 1 night.” At this point, it started to sound like it was obvious that both PacMan and Jimuel Pacquiao would lose their respective bouts. Making it two Pacquiaos to lose on a single night of boxing, if given that the Glendale native would be a part of the undercard.

One more user frustratingly commented, “God dammit not another Ali walsh,” referring to Nico Ali Walsh, the mythical Muhammad Ali’s grandson. Maybe for him/her, it is not appealing for boxing to be a thing of nepotism, where the family lineage of the greatest in the sport continues to pursue the same career and try to follow the footsteps of their past generations. Because, let’s be honest, it’s difficult to live up to what Ali and Pacquiao did. Mirroring the exact same emotion, another user wrote, “⁠I can already sense a bad night for the Pacquiao’s.”

Suggesting an alternative match to watch instead, one of the users wrote, “⁠Forget Pacman Jr. Watch Weljon Mindoro instead, dude is the best to watch out in the undercard of Pac-Barrios, could be a legit 160 contender.” Mindoro currently stands at an undefeated 13-0 record at a young age of 25. The fan thinks that this Filipino may be a promising contender in the middleweight division. But, actually, he is not a part of the Pacquiao-Barrios undercard, and is set to fight Omar Ulises Gutierrez Munguia on July 6.

Then, came another comment, shifting the attention to Pacquiao’s other son, born out of the boxer’s marriage. “Pacquiao’s other son is way better,” the comment said. Eman Bacosa-Pacquiao is also a boxer, and he made a professional debut in September 2023. To date, the 21-year-old is undefeated, winning 6 fights, including a unanimous decision victory over Congolese fighter Arnaud Darius Makita in March this year.

The post Boxing World Braces for a “Bad Night for the Pacquiaos” Amid Son’s Pro Debut Rumors in Undercard appeared first on EssentiallySports.