LOS ANGELES ? Manny Pacquiao and his team claimed that his training camp for his mega-fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. was a no-nonsense, serious affair. The team tightened their security and attempted to isolate the fighter, and even sparring partners requested anonymity.
When the dust settled at the end of the “Fight of the Century,” however, Pacquiao lost a unanimous decision to Mayweather, and then revealed that a shoulder injury affected his performance.
This is contrary to what those who followed him were led to believe ? that everything was going as planned.
In a Facebook post shortly after the fight, sparring partner Dashon Johnson explained that Pacquiao got injured during sparring, and that sparring partners were then sent home weeks before the fight.
He went on to say that a lot of the work that Pacquiao did had to be brought to a halt because the “Pacman” could not spar, and the team did not want to injure his right shoulder further.
The shoulder injury originated from a 2009 jet skiing trip, but was reportedly injured again during a sparring session on April 4. The next sparring session was scheduled for April 7, but the “Pacman” did not appear at the gym.
At the time, his publicist, Fred Sternburg, offered this excuse: “He wants to make sure he doesn’t overtire. Doesn’t want him to peak too soon. I think they are shocked at how far ahead he is in terms of conditioning, and I think it’s a concern now that he overtrains.”
The following Thursday, April 9, as basketball Hall-of-Famer Karl Malone visited the Wild Card, Pacquiao again did not spar. USADA was also at the gym that day to collect another sample for the blood and urine testing.
A week after the missed sparring sessions, training camp was apparently back in full force.
On April 13, trainer Freddie Roach said: “To be honest, 16 rounds of mitts today. I’ve never seen him hit so hard. He’s ready to go.”
The team did clarify other reports of injuries, which included shin splints that required an ointment treatment, as well as foot blisters.
Throughout the training camp, media had been locked out from the mitts and sparring sessions, and were allowed interviews only on certain days.
Yet even though most of the world was locked out, information supposedly leaked out of the gym, leading to speculation that Mayweather’s camp had spies ? a notion that Mayweather Promotions president Leonard Ellerbe foreshadowed shortly before the fight.
