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By Kirk Jackson
An injury that was expected to keep Filipino Boxing Legend out for nine to twelve months has been shortened down to four months.
As reported by Joaquin M. Henson from The Philippine Star, eight division world champion, Manny Pacquiao has fully recovered from his apparent shoulder injury suffered against rival Floyd Mayweather suffered back in May.
Skeptics may wonder, what led to such a swift recovery? Was it the magic of modern medicine, a senzu bean of Dragon Ball Z fame used?
Pacquiao was quoted as saying, “I’m fine. It’s God’s work.”
“I never saw a doctor. I never did rehab. All I did was to swim in the sea as often as I could. The salt water healed my wound.”
That’s pretty amazing. Such a swift recovery and no rehab?
Crediting the generous powers of God and swimming with sea salts for such a swift recovery without the need for rehab, one could only help but wonder if Pacquiao was even injured to begin with.
Of course one would think why would Pacquiao and his team lie about an injury?
Was it to save face for what was a disappointing performance from Pacquiao’s perspective? The injury excuse may be a viable outlet to sell a rematch with Mayweather for another huge payday.
The richest fight in history, “The Fight of the Century” featuring Mayweather and Pacquiao generated over $400 million dollars in revenue, shattering all sorts of records.
The same level of hype will not be repeated for a proposed rematch, but from a financial perspective a fight featuring the two legends will still generate a ton of cash.
In regards to this shoulder injury, there were contrasting reports from different members of the Pacquiao camp.
There was a report stating this injury was a pre-existing injury dating back to 2008, a stretch from then to current which spawned Pacquiao’s biggest wins.
“Manny Pacquaio has had a torn rotator cuff since 2008,” said Top Rank Promoter Bob Arum.
“Generally if it ticks up in training, you rest it for a couple of days and it’s fine.”
Since 2008, Pacquiao would go on to defeat Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Juan Manuel Marquez, Miguel Cotto, Timothy Bradley, etc. Yet no one would bring up the supposed lingering “shoulder injury.”
Another report states Pacquiao suffered his injury a few weeks prior to the match against Mayweather and aggravated the injury during the match against Mayweather.
Between rounds, viewers did not witness Pacquiao’s corner allocate special attention to the shoulder during the breaks, there was no mention of the injury and even directly after the fight there was no mention of the injury Pacquiao sustained during the fight.
The humble nature of Manny Pacquiao and not making an excuse for defeat would not apply to this situation, because Pacquiao made excuses for the performance and claimed to have won the fight when he was interviewed by HBO’s Max Kellerman.
Along with the miraculous recovery, Joaquin Henson’s interview with Pacquiao also covered who he could potentially face going forward.
The biggest name being thrown out there is Amir Khan.
Recently spurned by Floyd Mayweather, Khan has dreamed of a mega fight for years and hopes to have placed himself in prime position for this fight with Pacquiao.
This could potentially be a great match-up, as the two fighters share much in common.
They’re both extremely fast, exciting fighters, offensive minded, they used to share the same head trainer with Freddie Roach, and of course they share common opponents Marco Antonio Barrera and Chris Algieri.
Khan and Pacquiao can potentially be a large international draw and Top Rank Promotions with Pacquiao has the contract with the Venetian in Macao, China.
Things will be interesting as Pacquiao continues his miraculous recovery through the boxing ranks.
