It was announced on Monday night that Manny Pacquiao will be having surgery later this week to repair a "significant tear" in his rotator cuff. Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Neal Elattrache told ESPN that Pacquiao is expected to be out of action between nine months and a year.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said after the fight Pacquiao suffered the injury about two and half weeks before the showdown with Floyd Mayweather. Pacquiao ended up making the injury worse in the fight, which he lost by unanimous decision.
The question people have been wondering is why Pacquiao still competed and didn't just postpone the fight?
The injury is common among pitchers in baseball and being able to throw a pitch again can take up to almost a year. Pacquiao went out for 12 rounds and threw 429 punches against the best boxer of this generation.
You can understand why Pacquiao wanted to get in ring and fight on Saturday. It took five years to make the fight and Pacquiao wanted this fight more than anything he has ever wanted in his career. He was expected to make between $100- $120 million after final pay-per-view totals were finalized.
Did it affect how the fight played out?
It could have. The injury occurred in the fourth round which was the best round for Pacquiao in the fight. He rarely threw a right hand for the rest of the bout. Throwing with one hand makes the fight more difficult to win and facing someone like Mayweather will make the matter worse.
Over the years, Pacquiao had developed a powerful right hook and would have been fascinating to see what would have happened if Pacquiao had two good arms.
The fight should have been postponed and switched to a later date. Pacquiao could have healed up and get to 100 percent. Interest in the fight would have been even higher and more money could have been made.
Pacquiao owed it to everyone who was paying $100 to see the fight on PPV and to the people who attended the fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena who paid in excess of $10,000 to sit ringside to be at his best. Fans were expecting a great fight with both guys at the top of their game and they didn't get what they were paying for.
One of them was at their best and it wasn't Pacquiao.
Common sense goes out the window when money comes into play.