Manny Pacquiao’s son Emmanuel suffered a surprise loss in just his fourth amateur boxing fight last month.

The history of professional boxing is pretty extensive with some truly incredible competitors carving out a real legacy for themselves over the years. In the most recent generation of boxers, the lighter weight classes have really been able to rise up and challenge the star power of the heavyweights - with the likes of Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao serving as prime examples of that.

While the former still competes in exhibition matches, the latter has walked away from the squared circle in order to focus on his political career.

His son Emmanuel, also known as ‘Jimuel’, went against what his family desired and opted to enter the world of boxing - where he was able to move to a 3-0 amateur record.

Unfortunately for the 21-year-old, he ran into a challenge he couldn’t overcome on June 25 in the form of American Chris Smith.

Smith was making his own debut and certainly made a splash, putting Pacquiao Jr in several bad positions which included a standing eight count in just the second round.

When the scorecards were read it didn’t seem as if Emmanuel was overly upset with the result, almost as if he knew it was coming.

Will Manny return?

The great Manny Pacquiao has won a parade of world titles and has done some remarkable things in his career but at the age of 43, it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see him stay retired.

He’s got nothing left to prove in this game whereas in his home country, he still wants to make the kind of impact that will further strengthen his legacy.

It’s not unlikely that he could venture down the exhibition route alongside Floyd and perhaps even engage in a rematch with him one day, but politics has always been at the forefront of his future plans since becoming a senator.

His son, meanwhile, will be considering his own options, as he continues to try and prove the critics wrong by following in the footsteps of his old man.

You don’t have to like it, but it’s hard not to respect the grind.