Floyd Mayweather looked like the clearly superior fighter during his unanimous victory against Manny Pacquiao, but as it turns out it was not against a 100-percent Pacquiao. After the fight, Pacquiao revealed he fought through a shoulder injury and was denied a pre-fight shot by the Nevada Athletic Commission. Pacquiao said he has a tear in his right shoulder.
Mayweather vs. Pacquiao: Manny Pacquiao fought despite shoulder injury
Pacquiao was denied a pre-fight shot by the Nevada Athletic Commission.
“Two weeks before the fight, my shoulder was getting better and better, but it still wasn’t 100 percent,” Pacquiao said.
According to a report from Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports, Pacquiao injured his shoulder roughly a month before the fight. The injury is severe enough that it could require surgery and a nine-month rehabilitation. Although he was approved to take anti-inflammatory shots in the three to four weeks leading up to the fight, those were approved by the United States Anti-Doping Agency. Pacquiao reportedly requested a shot prior to the fight, but was denied because he had previously turned in a form indicating he didn’t have any injuries.
Nevada Athletic Commission Chairman Francisco Aguilar said he had not heard of the injury until only a couple hours before the fight and was unable to prove a shot was required.
“I have no proof of the injury,” Aguilar said, via Yahoo! Sports. “If he told us on Friday, we would have gotten the MRIs and there are a lot of things we could have done.”
How much the injury impacted Pacquiao during the fight is unknown. Mayweather landed nearly twice as many punches as Pacquiao -- 148-81 -- but that was largely due to a superb defensive effort from Mayweather. Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach said he thought the injury had improved enough to allow Pacquiao to remain in the fight.
“I thought he could get through the fight,” Roach said. “I never want to put a fighter into a fight injured in that manner, but I thought the progress was good enough, and that’s why we stayed with the fight.”
In his post-fight press conference Mayweather said he also fought through injuries.
Mayweather: "I had injuries also headed into this fight. If he'd have come out victorious, I'd have to say he's the better man."
— Luke Thomas (@SBNLukeThomas) May 3, 2015 See More:
