People’s Champ to undergo surgery for shoulder injury, faces lawsuits
WHEN the 12th round of the Fight of the Century came to a close on Saturday, May 2, Manny Pacquiao raised both his hands up before the winner was officially announced, believing he had won.
At the same time, Floyd Mayweather, Jr., who also believed he was champion, climbed the ropes to celebrate his victory.
When the winner was announced, it was Mayweather: the undefeated boxer extended his streak to 48-0 at the end of the match.
In a unanimous decision, the judges’ scorecards all favored Mayweather: 118-110, 116-112 and 116-112.
“He’s a hell of a fighter,” Mayweather said of Pacquiao in his post-fight interview. “I take my hat off to him. Now I see why he’s one of the guys that are at the pinnacle of the sport of boxing.”
Pacquiao, who was cheerful and appeared all but anxious before the bout, was not his usual peppy self when HBO’s Max Kellerman spoke with him after his opponent was announced the winner.
Throughout the match, it was Mayweather who ultimately controlled the tempo, as he danced around the ring and successfully dodged a number of Pacquiao’s punches. Although Pacquiao moved forward more, it was challenging for him to make contact with Mayweather.
“I thought I won the fight,” said Pacquiao, whose record has dropped to 57-6-2. “He didn’t do nothing, just moved outside. I got him many times.”
Because he believed he was winning, Pacquiao said he was not more aggressive in the 11th and 12th rounds.
“I thought I caught him many times. I was never hurt. I was very surprised by the scores,” he said.
CompuBox punch stats indicated that the Filipino boxer landed 81 out of 429 punches, or 19 percent, while Mayweather landed 148 of 435 punches, or 34 percent.
“I knew he was going to push it and win some rounds. He had some moments in the fight, but I kept him on the outside, I was a smart fighter. I wasn’t getting hit with a lot of shots until I sat in the pocket, that’s when he would land a lot of shots,” Mayweather said.
While Pacquiao initially reacted in the ring as though he had been robbed of victory against Mayweather, his response changed during the post-fight conference.
“I did my best… Anyway I’d like to thank the people who came to witness the fight. I don’t want to make alibis. It was a good 12 rounds. I fought a good fight.”
Shoulder injury
After Pacquiao’s defeat, it was revealed that he suffered a right shoulder injury in early April following a sparring session.
On Monday, May 4, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache told ESPN.com that an MRI confirmed Pacquiao has a significant tear in his rotator cuff.
Assuming the surgery is successful and rehabilitation goes well, Pacquiao will be sidelined between nine to 12 months, ElAttrache said.
Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Steve Carp, a sports writer, posted on Twitter that Pacquiao underwent surgery Wednesday, May 6. Carp also tweeted that Pacquiao was reportedly out of surgery that afternoon.
The injury Pacquiao sustained last month limited him from fully training with his right hand. The Los Angeles Times reported that the boxer said he entered the fight with his right arm functioning at 60 percent.
Pacquiao’s orthopedist told his camp that Pacquiao could take an injection with the anesthetic lidocaine if he desired, one that the USADA approved for use during the competition. However, the agency did not communicate its approval to the Nevada State Athletic Commission, chairman Francisco Aguilar said on Sunday, May 3.
At the weigh-in on Friday, May 1, Pacquiao’s camp indicated on a medical form the potential need for lidocaine, but checked the “no” box on the item asking about a shoulder injury.
“If the injury was disclosed at the weigh-in, we could’ve had a conversation and handled it differently,” Aguilar said, according to the Times. “When you come at 6:30 with the fight at 8, that’s a different conversation.”
Pacquiao said he “almost” wanted to postpone the fight due to his shoulder, but pushed to keep the date, knowing he would be able to take the injection.
However, his request to use it on the night of the fight was rejected.
Aguilar said the denial was Pacquiao’s fault for not mentioning his injury sooner.
“It’s part of the game,” Pacquiao said. “I don’t want to make alibis or complain or anything…[but] it’s hard to fight one-handed.”
The Times reported that Pacquiao said his shoulder got worse during the match in the fourth round, which he dominated by throwing effective combinations.
Lawsuits
Because the public was not informed that Pacquiao was fighting with an injury, the Filipino boxer and his promoters are now facing five class action lawsuits filed Tuesday, May 5, by: two Las Vegas residents for $5 million, two suits filed in California, one in Illinois and one in Texas.
The lawsuit filed by the Las Vegas residents claims that “the defendants knew… that defendant Pacquiao had been seriously injured and was suffering from a torn rotator cuff” and knew that the injury “would severely affect his performance.” The Guardian reported that the plaintiffs will presumably argue they were misled about the fight since Pacquiao was not at peak fitness.
Daniel Petrocelli, Pacquiao’s attorney, told the Times he expects the lawsuit will be dismissed because it makes false claims.
“It claims Pacquiao was injured [immediately] before the bout and that’s not true – he was injured [nearly a month] before the bout, was examined by doctors and cleared to fight,” Petrocelli said. “And he was examined by the commission right before he fought.”
One of the lawsuits filed in California said Pacquio’s injury turned the fight into the “Sleight Of The Century” and “unquestionably materially, significantly and negatively affected the quality of the product.”
Mayweather, in his post-fight news conference, told reporters he also entered the ring with arm and hand injuries.
“If [Pacquiao] would have come out victorious, the only thing I could have got up here and said was, ‘I have to show respect and say he was the better man. Both my arms were injured, both my hands were injured, but as I’ve said before, I always find a way to win.”
In 2009, Mayweather postponed his comeback against Juan Manuel Marquez due to a rib injury.
In an issue unrelated to the fight, Mayweather was also sued on May 5 for defamation by ex-girlfriend Josie Harris, the mother of three of his children. Harris filed the suit in Los Angeles Superior Court seeking $20 million for comments Mayweather made in an April interview with Yahoo! News anchor Katie Couric. The boxer told Couric he was restraining Harris who was on drugs during a 2010 domestic violence incident in Las Vegas. The lawsuit states that Mayweather’s comments are “utterly false.”
Another matter of legal concern stemming from the bout was the use of Periscope, a Twitter-owned live-streaming app that allowed users from around the world to share the fight from their own TVs for free. Other video streaming apps, such as Israel-based Meerkat, also raised concerns of piracy.
But Kayvon Beykpour, co-founder of Periscope, said in a conference in New York that media was making too big of a deal about the number of violators.
Top Rank President Todd DuBoef told Los Angeles Times it will “have to pursue” those who streamed the fight and the companies facilitating the streaming.
Showtime declined to comment on the issue.
A lackluster fight
Interest for the heavily hyped and highly lucrative bout was unprecedented and caused a delay of about 45 minutes as demand for the pay-per-view telecast overloaded systems, resulting in technical problems.
But at the end of the fight, which was anticipated for years and estimated to bring in about $300 million through pay-per-view, there was widespread disappointment among spectators with how the match played out.
“We waited five years for that… #underwhelmed,” former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, who picked Pacquiao to win, wrote on Twitter.
Boxer Oscar De La Hoya, who previously fought Mayweather and Pacquiao in different years, voiced a similar opinion on Twitter.
“Sorry boxing fans. Call me old school but I like the fans getting their money’s worth by watching an action-packed fight,” he wrote on the social media platform.
An article from USA Today called the showdown “a complete waste of time and money” and said the “so-called fight of the century was pay-per-snooze.” The author of the article, Chris Chase, wrote that the Spurs-Clippers Game 7, which concluded before the fight, was the opposite of the excitement in Mayweather-Pacquiao.
“It had action, unpredictability and ‘did you see that?!’ moments … Oh, and it didn’t cost $99.95,” Chase wrote.
The Atlantic ran an article about “Boxing’s Boring Night” and how the actual fight couldn’t live up to the hype.
But for Mayweather, the buildup leading to the bout was justified.
“When the history books are written, this fight will have been worth the wait,” he said.
Disappointment with the result
In addition to spectators calling the fight underwhelming, many were unhappy with Saturday’s outcome. Among those included a number of sections from the crowd of more than 16,000 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, who booed at the announcement of Mayweather’s victory.
In the Philippines, Pacquiao’s supporters have called for a rematch, CNN reported.
Boxing fans also took to social media to convey their displeasure with the bout; memes and posts mocking Mayweather for repeatedly hugging Pacquiao inside the ring and “running” went viral.
The undefeated fighter said he knew the winner wouldn’t be decided based on popularity.
“I know the judges weren’t going by the crowd screaming,” he said. “The judges were going by shots landed.”
Amid all the posts against Mayweather on social media, others praised his skill in the sport.
“In this generation, you have to go very, very far before you can be a skilled craftsman, businessman, technician, professional and king in knowing his craft, he told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Sportsweek program.
“As a boxer, you’ve got to admire him, he’s got to go down as one of the greats.”
While many were dissatisfied with the Fight of the Century, the match enabled both fighters to walk out of the ring richer. Mayweather was asked by reporters to confirm his receipt of a $100 million check, which he did upon pulling it out of his pocket.
“The check got nine figures on it, baby,” he said.
Estimates for Pacquiao say he earned upward of $100 million for the fight. CNN reported the Filipino boxer took home $1.4 million per punch landed.
Regardless of who won, Mayweather was guaranteed 60 percent under the fight contract, while Pacquiao was to take home 40 percent.
Both camps open to a rematch
Although the fight contract did not include a rematch clause, Mayweather told ESPN’s Stephen Smith in a text message Tuesday, May 5, that he would welcome a rematch after Pacquiao’s recovery from surgery.
“I will fight him in a year after his surgery,” Mayweather said in the text.
Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, also said Pacquiao’s camp is open to another showdown.
“It was a very close fight,” he said. “We’d love to do it again, but hopefully that’s in the future.”
(With reports from Agence France-Press, Associated Press, CNN, ESPN, International Business Times, Los Angeles Times, Rappler, The Guardian, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal)
