Roach: Pacquiao came into the fight with an injured shoulder

By Boxing News - 05/03/2015 - Comments

pacmay2 (4)By Chris Williams: Well it didn’t take long for Manny Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach to start with the excuses for why Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) was beaten tonight by the undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. (48-0, 26 KOs) in their mega-fight.

At the post-fight press conference tonight, Roach revealed that Pacquiao came into the fight with Mayweather with an injured right shoulder that he’d hurt while training with sparring partners. Roach says that Pacquiao had an MRI on his shoulder and it showed that he had a tear in his shoulder. It sounds like Roach was trying to get sympathy for Pacquiao.

I don’t buy the injury excuses from Pacquiao and Roach. The way Pacquiao fought tonight, he would have been beaten whether he was healthy or night. The better man won the fight. Mayweather said he came into tonight’s fight with injured shoulders as well, but he toughed it out instead of coming up with excuses.

“Manny said that they asked the NSAC [Nevada State Athletic Commission] about getting an exception for some kind of shot, but was denied,” Dan Rafael said on his twitter. “Manny said he hurt his shoulder in training camp two weeks before the fight and thought about postponing.”

If Pacquiao was truly injured then he should have called off the fight so that he wouldn’t be put in a situation where he would have to make excuses afterwards. Does he honestly think that he would be able to be a talent like Mayweather with an injured right shoulder? That’s ludicrous. If you want to believe his injury excuse.

There was no way Pacquiao would be able to beat Mayweather using only his left hand for his power shots, although I saw Pacquiao using his right hand all night long and throwing with good power. If it was a serious injury to Pacquiao’s shoulder then surely he wouldn’t have been able to throw with the kind of power that we saw from him. Pacquiao just couldn’t get within punching range most of the fight, and this was why his shots were hitting air. Mayweather was making Pacquiao miss again and again with his shots, and then countering him with hard shots to the head.

“Floyd says both of his hands and shoulders were injured, ‘but I always find a way to win.’ Floyd did say he thinks Pacquiao has a lot left.”

In hindsight, Pacquiao shouldn’t have taken the fight if he had some kind of ache or pain that he would use as a crutch afterwards to excuse his loss to Mayweather. Boxing fans deserve better than that.



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