Floyd Mayweather Jr. is reportedly training through pain with a “split lip” and “injured hands” with his long-awaited showdown against Manny Pacquiao exactly 20 days away.
Veteran boxing writer David Mayo of MLive, who has followed the pound-for-pound king since the beginning of his career, said that Mayweather “has been coping with hand injuries” with his preparations for the biggest fight of his life already in its crucial stages.
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“Floyd Mayweather has a split lip and injured hands. I know because I saw them,” Mayo wrote on mlive.com. “He sparred through the surely excruciating pain of superficial skin marks on his knuckles, then had to cope with the sting of the ointment.”
“He sparred with the split lip, then when the session ended, he walked to one of the large mirrors in his boxing gym, peeled down the lip to inspect it more closely, went and hit the heavy bag for a few minutes, then ordered another sparring partner back into the ring for a second session, presumably to split the lip even more,” Mayo vividly wrote in his column.
Fortunately, Mayweather dealing with some aches and pains is nothing alarming and is not something that would cause cancellation of his $300 million fight with Pacquiao, according to Mayo.
READ: Mayweather uses high-tech toy for recovery
Plus, it isn’t the first time Mayweather has endured some pain in his hands.
Mayo recalled the time when Mayweather’s hands “gave out” 14 years ago in a super featherweight title fight against Carlos Hernandez.
As a preventive measure, Mayweather occasionally sports a flak jacket in sparring to protect himself from re-injuring his ribs, as per Mayo. In 2009, Mayweather’s comeback bout was postponed for two months after the undefeated American suffered a rib injury during training coming out of a 21-month retirement.
“Nothing is structurally wrong with Mayweather’s hands. Nothing about his split lip will alter his sparring schedule to any meaningful extent,” Mayo cleared in his column.
The same way the 36-year-old Pacquiao has been hounded by cramps in his calves.
READ: Pacquiao’s leg cramps gone
Mayweather and Pacquiao are both training through pain. The real pain, however, will come on May 2 when they finally go toe-to-toe.
BACKSTORY: Contrasting buildups for Pacquiao, Mayweather
For more updates on Pacquiao-Mayweather “Fight of the Century,” visit The Pacquiao Files.