By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says he’s not ready to discuss a big money rematch between his fighter Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. until he knows for sure that Pacquiao will recover from his shoulder surgery for his torn right rotator cuff.
Arum isn’t sure whether Pacquiao will be able to recover from that injury. Arum is optimistic that Pacquiao will come back from the injury, but he’s still not sure if he will be able to come all the way back. Arum points out that some athletes never recover from the type of injury that Pacquiao had.
“Let’s just see if his shoulder responds,” Arum said to Fighthub. “I’m optimistic. I’m optimistic that Manny can go into training in six months, but that’s a time line based on averages. Some people recover quicker. A rotator cuff is a really strange injury. All I know is the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight hasn’t been discussed. Why discuss it until we know if the guy can fight again. It’s not a minor operation. Most fighters with Manny hurting his shoulder couldn’t compete against Pacquiao. Floyd competed very well,” Arum said.
What would be really troubling is if Pacquiao supposedly recovered from the injury, but then reinjured the fight against Mayweather or some other fighter, or if he reinjured it in training camp before the fight. If Pacquiao once again revealed that he had a shoulder injury, boxing fans wouldn’t know whether the injury occurred before the fight in training camp, or whether the injury ever sufficiently healed after the shoulder surgery. In that case, Pacquiao might be finished as a fighter in one more fight. It would be similar to how Antonio Margarito came back for one final fight against Miguel Cotto after having been out of the ring for one year and having had three eye surgeries during that time off from the ring.
Without a tune-up to see if his eye would hold together, Margarito went into the second fight with Cotto, and the fight was halted eventually in the 9th round due to Margarito’s bad eye swelling up. It would be nice if Arum let Pacquiao have an actual tune-up fight so that boxing fans could see whether his shoulder injury will hold together or not before Arum starts talking about wanting to put Pacquiao in with Mayweather again. That way fans won’t get potentially ripped off if Pacquiao’s shoulder hasn’t healed.
Arum said that Pacquiao had the shoulder injury since his fight against Oscar De La Hoya seven years ago in 2008. Arum said that Pacquiao has been fighting with it all this time and been able to still find success.
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