By Chris Williams: It was kind of a surprise and a disappointment to listen to Manny Pacquiao make excuses for his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. at the post-fight press conference by saying he had a pre-existing shoulder injury that he had injured two weeks before the fight. But more troubling than that was how Pacquiao failed to acknowledge that he had lost the fight to the superstar Mayweather in their PPV fight at the MGM Grand last night.
Pacquiao repeatedly said he thought he had won the fight, and that he had hurt Mayweather four times. Unless Pacquiao has a different standard for him having hurt one of his opponents, I don’t think anyone aside from his trainer Freddie Roach would agree with him on that. When a fighter loses like Pacquiao did, it’s important for them to be gracious in defeat by complimenting their opponents.
“I fought a good fight. I thought I won…I hurt him many times but he didn’t hurt me. I think I hurt him 3-4 times. The loss doesn’t bother me. I fought a good fight. I thought I won the fight. He always ran. I got him many times. I saw the punches and I think I won the fight. It’s not easy to throw a lot of punches if the opponent is moving around. I can handle hi power. It’s not like Margarito or Cotto.”
This obviously didn’t sound like a fighter who was ready to give credit to his opponent Mayweather for having beaten him. Even if Pacquiao feels he should have won the fight, he still should have put the focus on Mayweather by giving him credit for his victory instead of saying that he ran from him and that he hurt him. Mayweather didn’t run from Pacquiao, and he certainly wasn’t hurt.
You learn a lot about a person when you put them under stressful situations where their outward mask is lifted and you see what lurks inside. I would hope that the Pacquiao that we saw post-fight isn’t the real Pacquiao because that would be really disappointing. Him not acknowledging that Mayweather had beaten him, and discrediting him for his victory by saying he ran from him.
Above all, Pacquiao being a politician, he should know this already. But with the way Pacquiao spoke after the fight about how he thought he won, he came off as a sore loser in the minds of a lot of boxing fans. If you look at the internet boxing forums on Sunday, a day after the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, you’ll see a lot of fans saying that they think Pacquiao was a poor sport by not giving Mayweather the kudos that he deserved for having beaten him.
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