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ATTLEBORO - After a career as an amateur boxer that included a silver medal in the Junior Olympics, John "Jackie" Pimental turned to teaching the sweet science to other youngsters. Those whose families couldn't afford to pay for coaching, Jackie trained for free.

"He's got a good heart," said friend David Frazier who said Pimental worked with hundreds of young fighters over the years, often arranging to get donations of boxing gloves for aspiring pugilists who couldn't afford them.

These days, however, it's the 49-year-old former boxing coach that's battling off the ropes.

Complications following disc surgery last spring resulted in partial paralysis, forcing the former personal care attendant into a nursing home. Doctors placed the ex-boxer's head in a halo device to stabilize his neck.

On Saturday friends and family members, along with local entertainers, are planning a musical fundraiser for Pimental at the City Oasis Pub on Route 123 in Norton. The Hackers and Hamma Down will be playing rock music and a number of raffles are planned. Suggested donation for the 5-9 p.m. event is $10. Proceeds from the event will go to help Pimental with living expenses.

Pimental, one of five children who grew up in the Pine Street area, and his family have kept old neighborhood friendships alive through the years. When word of Jackie's medical problems began to get around, support began to rally.

"We're the original East Siders," joked Jackie's brother Dennis. "That's just how people are around here. When one of our boys goes down, people are there to help."

Dennis said the family has received dozens of inquiries and calls from well-wishers on Jackie's behalf.

The ties that bind on the East Side are often woven of hard knocks, personal relationships and humor.

Jackie learned his boxing from storied trainer Jake Brederson and rubbed shoulders with an older kid named John Dennis. Dennis, better known during his professional career as "Dino," once climbed into the ring with heavyweight champ George Foreman.

Jackie and his four brothers practically grew up at the Attleboro Recreation Center, then called "The Armory," where Brederson maintained a makeshift boxing ring and the Pimental boys accumulated nicknames. Jackie got his from former New England Patriots great Julius Adams.

Older brother Tommy Pimental recalled how when Jackie was a youngster he became involved in a basketball game at the armory organized by Adams and other Patriots with neighborhood kids. Jackie managed to steal the ball from one of the players.

"Everybody had a nickname in those days," Tommy said. "Julius, laughing, put his big hands on either side of Jackie's head and said 'you little peanut-head!' "

For years around the neighborhood, the name stuck. Those memories still bring smiles to the Pimental family, although the challenge facing brother Jackie is serious. In the last week he's had to be transported twice from his bed at the Life Care Center to Sturdy Memorial Hospital.

But on Saturday, old friends will be back in the corner of a neighborhood kid who did his best to share his knowledge and spirit with a new generation of East Siders.