Boxing’s ‘fight of the century’ may have ended with a Floyd Mayweather Jr. victory but controversy continues to grow over Manny Pacquiao’s post-fight claims of a shoulder injury.
Following the fight, Pacquiao’s camp revealed that their champ had suffered a serious injury to his right shoulder weeks before the fight. But the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) denied the fighter’s prefight request for an injection of an approved anti-inflammatory drug, a refusal that Pacquiao’s camp claimed had left Manny with one good arm.
The NAC has countered these claims by producing a prefight medical questionnaire in which Manny’s camp answered ‘no’ to a question asking if the fighter had “any injury to your shoulders, elbows or hands that needed evaluation or examination?” The form indicates that false answers could lead to perjury charges. Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz has since taken credit for the “inadvertent” paperwork booboo.
Pacquiao’s promoter Top Rank issued a statement claiming they’d notified the US Anti-Doping Agency and received approval “at least five days before the fight” to use accepted anti-inflammatories, including the numbing agent lidocaine. But the NAC says it was never made aware of this approval and therefore rejected a last-minute appeal by Pacquiao’s camp.