Pacquiao says shoulder 80-90% healed, wants Mayweather

By Boxing News - 10/12/2015 - Comments

Floyd Mayweather Jr and Manny PacquiaoBy Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) appears to have made a miraculous recovery from his shoulder surgery to repair his torn right rotator cuff. Just five months after surgery, Pacquiao is reportedly saying that his right shoulder is now at 80-90% full strength, and he wants to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. (49-0, 26 KOs) in a rematch.

Pacquiao is now saying he thinks he can beat Mayweather with a perfectly healthy shoulder. However, Pacquiao hasn’t even started training yet, so it’s impossible to know if his shoulder will be able to hold up to the wear and tear normal training, especially when he starts getting hit in that area by big shots from the sparring partners.

Pacquiao had better start groveling if he really wants Mayweather, because I think he’s going to need to really start smothering him with niceties if he wants a second shot. Pacquiao can start by admitting that he lost the fight. Pacquiao isn’t going to get a rematch with Mayweather is he’s going to continue to insist that he should have won the fight. That’s not going to work I’m afraid. Pacquiao is probably going to need to get on his knees and pretty much grovel in the kindest voice for Mayweather to fight him again. If I was Pacquiao, I’d start stalking Mayweather at sporting events and then I’d make sure I bumped into him. Pacquiao needs to smile a lot when he does talk to Mayweather, and make sure he laughs at all of his jokes instead of just staring at him stone-faced, not smiling.

Unless Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum and trainer Freddie Roach are going to create some kind of contraption that keeps him from taking shots on the shoulder, we could see Pacquiao struggle to make it through training camp. What we don’t want is Pacquiao going into another fight with the same injury, because the boxing fans won’t get their money’s worth if they’re going to be paying to see him on HBO PPV or live in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“If you ask me, of course, I want a rematch [with Mayweather],” Pacquiao said via AP. “I heard that he retired already. If he really retired, then there’s no rematch. But if not…He kept moving around and didn’t want to fight toe to toe with me, exchanging punches.”

Mayweather hasn’t said anything about wanting to fight Pacquiao again, but if Arum tells the media that they’re willing to accept a 70-30 or 80-20 cut of the financial pie, I think Mayweather would be willing to come out of retirement to scoop up another $100-150 million.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8Svii4R95k

Pacquiao’s cut will obviously need to drop down to somewhere along the lines of $50 million for the rematch with Mayweather, but that’s $50 million that Pacquiao won’t be getting if he insists on too big of a cut of the purse. Pacquiao needs to know his place in the negotiations. He can’t be asking for parity when he’s the one who was beaten last May, and he was the one that disclosed he had an injury. The combination of Pacquiao losing the fight and then saying he was injured means that it’s going to be nearly impossible for him to get a better split than 70-30.

It’s very sad that Pacquiao is still complaining about Mayweather using movement during their May 2nd fight at the MGM Grand, because he and Roach should have known that Mayweather was going to use movement against him.

YouTube video

For Pacquiao to still be complaining about Mayweather not choosing to fight his primitive style of fighting, it’s just really disappointing. That sounds like to me that there was a slip up during Pacquiao’s training camp, because Roach should have had Pacquiao totally ready for the movement that he was going to have to deal with.

“I think so, especially (after) I fixed my shoulder,” Pacquiao said about him being able to beat Mayweather now that his shoulder has been repaired.

YouTube video

I don’t think Pacquiao can beat Mayweather no matter how healthy his shoulder is. Pacquiao fought like someone who was afraid to take head shots from Mayweather, and that won’t change in the rematch. It’s not about Pacquiao’s shoulder, it’s about him not wanting to get nailed with hard shots while he’s coming forward.



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