LAS VEGAS ? For over 45 minutes, WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao was closeted in a private room with plastic surgeon Dr. Jerry Roth shortly after he beat Juan Manuel Marquez on a majority 12-round decision at the MGM Grand Garden Arena here Saturday night (yesterday morning, Manila).
The room was in his dressing quarters and closed to media. Pacquiao?s wife Jinkee, Dr. Vicki Belo and cutman Miguel Diaz were among those who watched Dr. Roth patch up a gaping wound above his right eye.
The cut was opened by a headbutt in the late rounds, according to Pacquiao?s trainer Freddie Roach. Pacquiao said if he suffered the cut earlier, it could?ve changed the complexion of the fight because of the severe handicap.
Jinkee said from what she could recall, it was the worst cut ever inflicted on the world?s No. 1 pound-for-pound champion. The cut took 28 stitches to sew up ? eight in the inner layer, eight in the middle layer and 12 in the outer layer.
