Manny Pacquiao has revealed that a shoulder injury thwarted him against Floyd Mayweather as it had threatened to force him to postpone the fight.
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Pacquiao was defeated by Mayweather in a one-sided affair in Las Vegas on Saturday night, with the American moving to 48-0 after a masterful performance in which he dominated his rival.
Critics questioned why the Filipino wasn’t more aggressive and didn’t let off more shots when he got into range with his opponent, and it appears as though a shoulder muscle tear was the reason behind his struggle.
“Three weeks before my fight I had to skip my training for a couple of days for that reason. We went for an MRI – there is a tear in my right shoulder,” he said, Sky Sports reports.
“I cannot use my right shoulder a lot. The fight was still good. But what we wanted to do, we could not do because of my shoulder.
“The thing is in the third round I already felt the pain in my shoulder. When I threw a lot of combinations I had to back off because it hurt.
“But he’s fast – he’s a good boxer. Give credit to him – he won tonight.”
Roach added that the pair had considered the possibility of postponing the fight, but the injury was improving and so they proceeded with the set date and believed that they could still win.
Pacquiao insisted in the ring after the fight that he had done enough to win and questioned why Mayweather deserved to win given that he ran around the ring a lot.
While that was certainly the case in the later rounds, there was no denying that he was more accurate throughout the fight and Pac-Man was unable to get past his defensive genius to land any telling blows to question his authority in the fight.
It is unclear at this stage as to where the two fighters will go after this, with Mayweather suggesting that he will retire after his last fight in September. While it has been touted that the pair could meet in a rematch, the margin of the victory would suggest that it isn’t a realistic possibility.
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