By Dan Ambrose: For some reason one excuse wasn’t enough for Manny Pacquiao in trying to explain what went wrong with his game last Saturday in losing to Floyd Mayweather Jr. by a 12 round unanimous decision. Pacquiao used the scattergun approach to making excuses for his defeat to Mawyeather, blaming it on him missing a couple of weeks of training camp because of a shoulder problem, as well as him missing a couple of other days of training for unknown reasons.
Pacquiao apparently sees the combination of missed training time and his shoulder injury as a factor in what happened last Saturday in his loss to Mayweather at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“Two weeks I didn’t train. I skipped my training a couple of day. There is a tear in my right shoulder,” Pacquiao said at the post-fight press conference about his problems during training camp. “The third round, I really feel the pain in my shoulder.”
Mayweather wasn’t feeling too sympathetic about Pacquiao’s injuries, as he pointed that he too came into the fight with injury problems and this was an issue for him. However, Mayweather says he still rose above his injuries and found a way for him to win the fight by being smart and using his boxing skills to get the ‘W’ in front of a sold out crowd at the MGM Grand.
“I had injuries also going into this fight and if he would’ve came off victorious, the only thing I could’ve got up here and say is, you know what, I got to show respect and say he’s the better man if he beat me,” Mayweather said. “Both of my arms was injured, both of my hands was injured, but like I said before, I will always find a way to win.”
It’s unclear which fighters’ injuries were worse last night. I guess we’ll never know. But what we do know is that Mayweather was smart last night in making Pacquiao miss with his wild shots and nailing him with counter punches to make him pay for anything he attempted to do inside the ring. Mayweather wasn’t going to let Pacquiao get off scot free when he tried to land something.
It looks bad that Pacquiao chose to discuss his injuries openly like this after the fight because when a fighter does this in a losing effort, it comes across as like someone trying to make an excuse for his defeat. I think it’s a taboo for a losing fighter to talk about any prior injuries or injuries that occurred during the fight because it’s been done too much by different fighters in the past, and some boxing fans interpret it as a way for a fighter to save face in front of his fans. With Pacquiao being such a huge star in the Philippines, a lot of his loyal fans will no doubt listen to his excuses and be sympathetic to him. In fact, some fans will feel that Pacquiao was brave for him still taking the fight with him having a shoulder injury.
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