{"id":279325,"date":"2025-11-13T01:06:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T01:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/279325\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T01:06:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T01:06:09","slug":"bacosa-shares-emotional-pacquiao-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/279325\/","title":{"rendered":"Bacosa shares emotional Pacquiao moment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(UPDATE) RIGHT from the start, Emmanuel \u201cEman\u201d Bacosa knew that boxing legend Manny Pacquiao was his father.<\/p>\n<p>Bacosa\u2019s mother, Joanna, who had a relationship with Pacquiao in 2003, never kept it a secret from his son, whose resemblance to the boxing icon is undeniable.<\/p>\n<p>Still, it took Bacosa turning 18 and not seeing the world\u2019s only eight-division champ for 10 years before Pacquiao fully acknowledged him as his son in 2022.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/824342.png\" data-fancybox=\"gallery\" data-caption=\"&#10;Eman Bacosa (right). XINHUA PHOTO \"><\/p>\n<p>                                <img width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/824342.png\" alt=\"&#10;Eman Bacosa (right). XINHUA PHOTO \" onerror=\"imageOnError(this);\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                                    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>\nEman Bacosa (right). XINHUA PHOTO <\/p>\n<p>The long wait was worth it.<\/p>\n<p>Get the latest news<br \/>\n                <br class=\"br-line\"\/><br \/>\n                delivered to your inbox<\/p>\n<p>Sign up for The Manila Times newsletters<\/p>\n<p>            By signing up with an email address, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.manilatimes.net\/terms-of-service\" title=\"Terms of Service\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Terms of Service<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.manilatimes.net\/privacy-policy\" title=\"Privacy Policy\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe visited my dad, and he let us in. Then my dad hugged me tightly,\u201d said Bacosa, 21, in a lengthy interview with \u201cKapuso Mo Jessica Soho.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[He said], \u2018I missed you son. I haven\u2019t seen you for such a long time.\u2019 Then I hugged him back. I was holding back my tears because I was so happy to see him. We hadn\u2019t seen each other for 10 years,\u201d added Bacosa, who grew up in Tagum, Davao del Norte.<\/p>\n<p>Bacosa, who entered the mainstream consciousness after fighting in Thrilla in Manila\u2019s 50th anniversary fight card last month, just returned to the Philippines at that time (2022) after spending five years in Japan, where he studied and began boxing training.<\/p>\n<p>His reunion with his dad was emotional \u2014 one filled with forgiveness and understanding. It wasn\u2019t that Pacquiao never acknowledged Bacosa as his son before. The full recognition just took some time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe also asked for my forgiveness. I forgave him as well. I said, \u2018Dad, I understand your situation. What\u2019s important to me is that I get to be with you and that you support my boxing career,\u2019 that\u2019s why I appreciate him,\u201d he shared.<\/p>\n<p>Knowing the brutal demands of boxing, Pacquiao, 46, initially discouraged Bacosa from pursuing a career in the sport but his son, who developed his boxing interest in 2011 when he saw Pacquiao defeat Shane Mosley, was determined.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI told him, \u2018Dad, I was planning to take up boxing.\u2019 He said, \u2018Boxing is hard. Just focus on your studies instead. I\u2019ll just send you to America,\u2019 something like that&#8230; I said, \u2018But dad, boxing is my passion.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen he signed my [papers] and said, \u2018Son, I\u2019ll make you a Pacquiao so it\u2019ll be easier for you to rise in boxing.\u2019 It felt like he was making it up to me. I said, \u2018Oh my, thank you, Lord.\u2019 I went into my room and cried there. I said, \u2018Thank you, Lord,\u2019\u201d he shared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(UPDATE) RIGHT from the start, Emmanuel \u201cEman\u201d Bacosa knew that boxing legend Manny Pacquiao was his father. Bacosa\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[127309,703,49,48,14467,11489,7501,7555,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-279325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-bacosa","9":"tag-boxing","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-emotional","13":"tag-moment","14":"tag-pacquiao","15":"tag-shares","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}