Pacquiao injured before fight, reinjured during third round

Manny Pacquiao at the Wildcard Gym. Photo by Chris Farina / Manny Pacquiao official Facebook page

While training for his boxing match with Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr., Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao reportedly suffered an injury in his right shoulder.

Despite the injury, Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum, belittled the incident and pressed on the fight.

“Athletes always fight hurt. We felt that the work was done on the shoulder during training. We gave him the opportunity to use the right hand,” Arum said.

Despite recovering before the fight, Pacquiao got reinjured during the third round as he still tried to punch with his right hand. Pacquiao threw fewer punches in the succeeding rounds.

“We were disappointed when in the third round the injury kicked up again, but this is always the case in sports. A guy is injured in training, he then deals with the injury, he thinks he conquers it, it re-injures in the game. It happens in every sport,” Arum explained.

“You guys saw the fight yourself. When you review the film, you’ll see how infrequently he threw the right hand,” he added.

Contrary to what was expected, Mayweather outpunched Pacquiao. According to the Compubox statistics, Pacquiao landed merely 18 punches of 193 right jabs throughout the fight. With his left hand, Pacquiao landed 63 of his 236 power punches. Hence, the Filipino boxing icon averaged only six punches per round in the bout.

Pacquiao, for his part, admitted that the injury made it hard for him to throw punches.

“Three weeks before the fight I skipped training for that reason. We went to have an MRI and there’s a tear on right shoulder. I’m hesitant to be aggressive because with only one hand. I used my right hand for feinting and only left hand I can use. It’s hard to fight one-handed,” he said.

Pacquiao then had to take medications for his injury.

“We had gotten the approval with the USADA. We filed it with the [Nevada State Athletic] Commission, the commission was well aware that Manny had a shoulder injury,” Arum said.

Pacquiao also requested to take a shot for his shoulder before his fight. The NSAC, however, denied his request.