By Chris Williams: For those who care, Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) is out of surgery and is resting after having his injured right shoulder operated on in Los Angeles. Pacquiao, 36, had surgery to repair a tear in his right rotator cuff.
The tear was significant enough to where the Filipino star had to undergo surgery to have it repaired rather than resting it. It’s going to take Pacquiao now the better part of a year for him to recover from the surgery.
Once Pacquiao has fully rehabbed his shoulder, his promoter Bob Arum wants to immediately put him in with Floyd Mayweather Jr. for a big money rematch next year rather than having Pacquiao take a couple of tune-ups to make sure his shoulder is stable and strong enough to handle a fight against a top tier fighter.
It’s kind of a risky thing for Arum to throw Pacquiao immediately into the ring with a fighter as good as Mayweather because that’s not the normal custom for fighters coming off of injuries as serious as a torn rotator cuff. That’s a potential career-altering injury. Some fighters are able to come back from the surgery and still fight at a top level, whereas others don’t do so well.
Having Pacquiao go straight into a Mayweather fight without a tune-up is just asking for trouble for the soon to be 37-year-old Pacquiao. For fight fans, it might not be a good deal if Pacquiao isn’t sharp from the long layoff and the after effects of shoulder surgery.
Pacquiao suffered the shoulder injury last April during a sparring session, and instead of doing the smart thing and postponing the Mayweather fight last Saturday night so that he could properly recover from the injury, Pacquiao went ahead and fought Mayweather anyway. As you would guess, Pacquiao was ineffective from start to finish and lost the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision. But then after the fight, Pacquiao complained that he had fought with an injured shoulder, and insisted that he should have won the fight.
Instead of blaming himself for thinking he could beat Mayweather with just one healthy shoulder, Pacquiao failed to take responsibility for making a wrong-headed decision. In the aftermath of the fight many boxing fans have been understandably upset with Pacquiao because of the huge money that fans spent on seeing the fight. Pacquiao made a ton of money off the fight, and some fans feel that the money was Pacquiao’s main concern rather than him thinking of the fans who had spent a lot of money to see him fight.
Pacquiao is out of surgery and in recovery. Expecting a statement from the doctor later. #boxing #MayweatherPacquiao
— Dan Rafael (@danrafaelespn) May 6, 2015
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