Pacquiao to go under knife?
Photo from Top Rank Boxing’s Facebook page.
LOS ANGELES–Whether Manny Pacquiao will need surgery or not on his right shoulder will be known Monday afternoon (Tuesday Manila time).
Pacquiao will have the shoulder examined at an undisclosed hospital here to find out the gravity of the injury he sustained in the fourth round of his Fight of the Century with Floyd Mayweather Saturday night at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
READ: LOOK: Pacquiao nursing ‘torn’ right shoulder
If the result shows that the tear underneath the rotator cuff will require surgery, Pacquiao will most likely ask that the operation be held in the Philippines, since he has his duties as Sarangani representative to attend to.
If ever, the operation will put Pacquiao out of the ring for three to six months, effectively ruling him out of a rematch with Mayweather, who beat him by unanimous decision, in September.
READ: Mayweather preserves perfect record, overcomes Pacquiao
Mayweather announced during the post-fight conference on Sunday that he’ll be fighting for the last time in September.
Though there’s no rematch clause in the colossal battle projected to earn $400 million, Team Pacquiao is hoping that Mayweather will reconsider because there’s no other fight out there that would bring in more money than Mayweather-Pacquiao II, especially with the injury angle coming into play.
Thus far, the first edition will give Mayweather up to $180 million in revenues, with a $100-million check handed to him after the fight that drew a packed crowd of 16,507.
Pacquiao stands to earn around $100 million depending on the pay-per-view revenues all around the world.
In a press conference held Sunday afternoon, shortly before Team Pacquiao left for Los Angeles, Pacquiao said he re-injured the shoulder while raining punches on Mayweather in the fourth round.
A sudden stinging pain forced Pacquiao to stop the attack, and he was never the same after that.
“It felt like a needle was being stuck into my shoulder,” said Pacquiao while holding his right arm like a sling under his jacket.
From the fifth round onward, Pacquiao was fighting with a good left hand and a damaged right, which certainly wouldn’t be enough against a boxer of Mayweather’s caliber.
“I backed off because of the pain,” Pacquiao said. “It’s very important to have confidence in your right and left, and when you’re hurt, you’re thinking about that, too.”
Fight statistics would later reveal that Pacquiao was indeed but a shadow of the perpetual motion machine that dominated the ring from 2008-2011.
Pacquiao threw just 429 punches, the fewest he has ever unleashed in a 12-rounder, based on compubox figures.
In his last three fights against Brandon Rios, Tim Bradley and Chris Algieri, respectively,Pacquiao averaged 674 punches.
READ: Mayweather threw more punches than Pacquiao–Compubox stats
In his meanest offensive form, Pacquiao threw over 1000 punches twice, against Antonio Margarito and Joshua Clottey.
That the defense-master Mayweather could out-punch Pacquiao simply boggles the mind.
In his last two fights against Marcos Maidana, Mayweather unloaded an average of just 376 punches. Increasing his output by 59 punches meant that he was indeed in mean form for the megabuck bout.
Pacquiao, on the other hand, was saddled with a painful injury.
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