For those who have watched Manny Pacquiao fight in the past, it was obvious that the Filipino did not look at his fluent best during his bout against Floyd Mayweather in the fight of the century.
His left-hand straight punch along with the jabs looked feeble; his movements despite being swift failed to hand Mayweather his first defeat. In the latter stages of the bout, the Filipino slowed down as well. This is not the Filipino, which one had seen in the past throwing punches and flooring some of the best pugilists in the sport.
But, the latest reports, which suggest that the boxer had suffered an injury to his shoulder during the training camp. The incident had taken place three to four weeks ago as a result of which the Filipino was receiving anti-inflammatory shots approved by the United States Anti-Doping Agency.
Just a few hours before the match, the Filipino wanted to take a shot, but were not permitted by the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC).
"We felt the [rehabilitative] work that was done on the shoulder during training would give him the opportunity to use the right hand," Yahoo quoted Bob Arum as saying.
And to make matter worse for the Filipino, the injured kicked in again during the third round. Is it because of his shoulder problem the Filipino looked less aggressive in the latter half?
"We were disappointed when in the third round the injury kicked up again, but this is always the case in sport. ... He heals the injury, thinks he's conquered it and it flares up again."
The Commission's chairman Francisco Aguilar stated that they were not aware of the injury at all until Saturday night just hours before the fight.
"The first I heard of this was at 6:08 [p.m. PT] when he arrived in the locker room," he said.
"I have no proof of the injury," Aguilar said. "If he told us on Friday, we would have gotten the MRIs and there are a lot of things we could have done."
