Will the sons also rise?

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

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

Is he for real? This came about as he became aware that climbing the ring could fetch unimagined pain and torment coming from rivals raring to inflict harm particularly to a Pacquiao?

Jimuel knows it will be a perilous journey. Particularly now that another Pacquiao – Eman Bacosa Pacquiao – will share in the highlights and interests of their respective careers.

And Eman Bacosa seems to bask in his own image as he carries the aura of a celebrity, being labeled as a future “heartthrob” in the side of entertainment.

But focus will be on Jimuel as he brandishes his passion for boxing –pedigree, bloodline and all – hoping his young career would draw boost despite severe objection from his parents.

“It’s my passion,’’ he said.

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

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

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 stays active in the prizefight, with all of the physical harm inherent in it. There were successful father-son duos in the past – Julio Cesar Chaves and his Junior, the Mayweathers and Joe Frazier and son Marvis, to name three – 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. Then there’s the question of being borne to glamour and glitz or to grinding poverty?

The young Pacquiao may have the passion for boxing, whipping 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 confines of exclusive schools but in the old man’s troubled South still reeling from decades of civil strife and reeking with the blood and sweat of the poor.