By Dan Ambrose: Manny Pacquiao is taking a lot of heat right now not only from the boxing public but from a lot of writers for failing to disclose his right shoulder injury before his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. last Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
According to Yahoo Sports, Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz checked off a ‘No’ in a pre-fight medical form for the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) for question No.6, which asked “Have you had any injury to your shoulders, elbows or hands that needed evaluation or examination? If yes, explain.”
While Koncz did list the medications that Pacquiao was using at the time on the pre-fight medical form for the drugs “Lidocaine, dBupivicaine, Celestone, PRP and Toradol,” it’s still unclear why an X was placed in the ‘No’ box on the form asking whether there any injury to the shoulders, elbows or hands that need evaluation or examination.
Apparently, the USADA, which was overseeing the drug testing for the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, was alerted about the injury to Pacquiao’s shoulder by Pacquiao’s advisers before the fight. However, it wasn’t the USADA that was regulating the fight, according to Yahoo Sports writer Kevin Iole. The NSAC was the ones who were regulating the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, and they were the ones who should have been informed about the injury.
Pacquiao wanted to use the medication Torodol via a shot before the fight, but the NSAC rejected the use of it. Torodol is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug.
Francisco Aguilar, the executive director of the NSAC reportedly found out about Pacquiao’s shoulder injury just a little over two hours before his fight against Mayweather on Saturday night. However, Aguilar reportedly didn’t know about the injury the day before on Friday at the weigh-in for the fight. Had he known at that time about the injury, he may have given his approval for the use of the drug Toradal for the fight.
Pacquiao’s performance against Mayweather was far less than what we’d seen from the Filipino fighter in his previous bout against Chris Algieri last year in November. How much of that was due to Pacquiao’s shoulder injury and how much of it was because of Mayweather’s great defense is unclear. What we do know is that Pacquiao threw only 429 punches against Mayweather compared to 669 for the Algieri fight. For Pacquiao to have had a chance of beating Mayweather, he would have needed to throw a lot more shots than he did, likely as many if not more than he did against Algieri.
The prices to see the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight were increased from the normal pay-per-view rate with the fight going for $89 to $100. Not only that, but tickets for the fight were marked way up, and the cost of hotels stays in Las Vegas, Nevada were also reportedly increased. If the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight had turned out to be a good one boxing fans likely wouldn’t have minded paying the huge money that he did.
The undercard fights that went with the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight were mismatches, and it’s pretty clear that not a lot of effort was put into making great fights for the undercard. With all the money that fans were being asked to pay to see the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight card, as well as the money for travel and hotel costs, fans got very little in return.
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