Manny Pacquiao had his blood taken recently ahead of his fight against Joshua Clottey.
The test was the standard, checking for everything from communicable diseases that could potentially be passed onto the opponent or conditions that could make it medically dangerous for Pacquiao to fight. fairly standard and something that every fighter has to go through.
What is unusual about the event though is that Pacquiao is clearly shaken by having to give his blood, and this is at 25 days out from the fight.
Floyd Mayweather’s insistence that Pacquiao is ducking him or that he won’t take what he calls a ‘$25 million dollar drug test’ is not entirely accurate.
Whether its a mental or physical thing, as discussed by my buddy from Indianapolis, Pacquiao certainly looks affected.
Fighting Eric Morales the first time, which Pacquiao lost, he said that having his blood taken too close to the fight was draining on his body and made it difficult to fight as well as he should have. By the sounds of it then this could be as much a mental problem as a physical one, although there are medical reasons having blood can slow you down as well.
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Although the amount of blood taken before a fight isn’t that big, often the drawing site is sore and will bruise up after the blood is taken. This is usually fine if you avoid using your arm for a few days, although of course difficult for someone who needs to throw hundreds of punches every day in training. A lot of this depends on who is taking the blood and often purely luck as to whether the arm will bruise up and how long it will be sore for. But when your reputation and career is on the line, not to mention potentially $40 million dollars, it’s easy to become a little superstitious.
For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV George Hollister, Pittsburgh PA: “If Mayweather can see what Pacquiao is like giving blood, why doesn’t he ask for a different type of random testing like urine or hair?” I think the reason is twofold in Maywather’s eyes. Firstly if he can unsettle Pacquiao and make him nervous or apprehensive in training and then less prepared during the fight then he has a better chance of beating him. Secondly Floyd believes that blood testing is a lot more accurate than urine testing, although in reality there isn’t that much difference in what you can detect. Hair testing is the most thorough by far but takes the longest, although seems the easiest option to me as well. Thomas Miller, Pittsburgh PA: “Does Mayweather really think Pacqiao is on something or does he just want to disrupt his training and damage him mentally?” That’s a tough one, but if I had to pick I’d go with the latter. This isn’t unique to this fight either, all boxers do these kinds of things to try to throw their opponent off. Pacquiao’s $10 million per pound clause he had against Floyd or Mayweather’s insistence in taking the champions entrance in all of his fights are both partly to gain a mental advantage over their opponents.
