Ana Julaton. Photo by Trista Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Ana Julaton has made her own mark in the world of women’s boxing, with two titles under her name.
With her career in mixed martial arts just starting to take off, “The Hurricane” would never fail to acknowledge someone who paved the way not just for her but for the other Filipinos as well—boxing’s only eight-division world champion, Manny Pacquiao.
“Pioneer? That’s such a big word. I’m just really thankful that you have someone like Manny Pacquiao to do the things that he did,” Julaton said Tuesday before her open workout in Makati.
Julaton, a former WBO and IBA super bantamweight world champion, said growing up nobody would recognize Filipinos, it would either be “Chinese, Japanese, Korean.”
And Pacquiao, Julaton said, put the Filipinos in the American psyche and made it known Filipinos can excel.
“I’m just trying to make a point and for Manny Pacquiao to do everything he did, everyone will pay pay-per-view dollars to have them listen to the [Philippine] National Anthem, oh my gosh, I was in tears,” Julaton said.
She added her younger relatives, and the younger Filipinos living in the United States, have all been proud to say they’re Filipinos.
“They can say ‘I’m a Filipino in the United States, I’m a Filipino in Brazil, I’m a Filipino in the UK [United Kingdom],’ and you know what I’m proud of who I am these are my roots, this is where I came from,” Julaton said.
“I’m very proud of who I am, we’re a very strong people. Through adversity we always strive and you know we can do it.”
Pacquiao’s life story had such a huge impact on Julaton, and the boxing’s champions’s life story—going from selling stuff in the streets to become the multi-million persona—is something she would always take inspiration from.
“Seeing what he did selling in the streets just so he can make a living, fighting the way he did to become one of the highest-paid athletes in the entire world, having the Philippine flag tagged to him, which would be in the record books forever, oh my gosh,” Julaton exclaimed.
“For me I don’t feel like a pioneer, I feel like I was given an opportunity like a Manny Pacquiao… I feel like I have an opportunity and all I can do is the best I can be and just grab it. You only live once.”