While many of his fans believed his explanation, others think he was using his shoulder injury as an alibi for his less-than-impressive performance against Mayweather.
To prove his injury was serious, he submitted himself to a major surgery right after his loss to Mayweather to repair his torn shoulder rotator cuff.
After months of post-surgery rehab, Pacquiao said he has completely recovered and told his fans he is now ready to face Mayweather a second time.
Pacquiao assured fans he is ready to give them the fight that they have been wanting to see as he challenged Mayweather to get out of retirement and face him in a rematch.
For his part, Mayweather downplayed Pacquiao’s claimed injury as the reason for his loss saying Pacquiao should be man enough to accept his loss without putting the blame on his shoulder injury.
After the fight Mayweather offered Pacquiao a rematch but later held off because Pacquiao did not immediately accept the loss.
“Did I text Stephen A. Smith and say I will fight him again? Yeah, but I change my mind,” Mayweather says in an interview that was set then to be aired Showtime “At this particular time, no, because he’s a sore loser and he’s a coward… If you lost, accept the loss and say, ‘Mayweather, you were the better fighter,” Mayweather said after the fight.
It may be recalled that Pacquiao was doing well against Mayweather during the first four rounds but was seen slowing down from fifth round onward.
Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach has admitted Pacquiao has complained about a recurring shoulder injury in the last few years but both of them may have thought that it was nothing serious until it manifested in the final days of training and midway to the Mayweather fight.
On April 9, Pacquiao should be able to show his fans that he will be facing Bradley with two good hands and if he can win convincingly, he could either retire for good, having proved to fans that he lost to Mayweather because of injury, or call out Mayweather again for a rematch to settle the issue and put their long-running rivalry behind them.
