Pacquiao to have surgery on rotator cuff

Don’t look for Manny Pacquiao to return to the ring until next year. But there’s a good chance he will find himself back in Las Vegas next month.

The boxing icon from the Philippines will have surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder later this week after reinjuring the joint during Saturday’s 12-round unanimous decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. at the MGM Grand Garden. Pacquiao will have the surgery performed in Los Angeles and is expected to be out of action from eight to 10 months.

However, the Nevada Athletic Commission is concerned about the boxer’s prefight medical questionnaire which he filled out and signed the day before the fight at the MGM. Pacquiao checked the “no” box to the question: “Have you had any injury to your shoulders, elbows or hands that needed evaluation or examination?”

Pacquiao, his trainer Freddie Roach and his promoter Bob Arum all admitted after the fight that Pacquiao had injured his shoulder in early April, was receiving treatment so he could make the date to face Mayweather and that they listed on the same questionnaire the drugs he was using to treat the shoulder. Those drugs were Lidocaine, Bupivocaine, Celestone, Paletet Rich Plasma and Toradol, and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which oversaw the prefight drug testing for both fighters, was aware of Pacquiao’s use of those drugs.

Pacquiao was looking to receive a shot of Toradol, an anti-inflammatory drug, before he entered the ring Saturday. But the commission refused to allow the shot to be administered because of what was on the questionnaire.

Pacquiao fought without the use of the medicine and he claimed to have reinjured the shoulder during the third round. Yet, he hurt Mayweather in the fourth round and had another excellent round in the sixth. All three judges gave Pacquiao the fourth and sixth rounds in a fight he eventually lost by scores of 118-110, 116-112 and 116-112.

Meanwhile, Pacquiao’s team issued a statement Monday claiming the NAC was aware of his injured shoulder five days before he and Mayweather fought at the sold-out Grand Garden.

The statement read, in part: “On his pre-fight medical form filled out earlier in the week, Manny’s advisers listed the medication that Manny used in training and the medications that might be used on fight night. A few hours before he was expected to step into the ring when Manny’s doctors began the process, the Nevada Commission stopped the treatment because it said it was unaware of Manny’s shoulder injury.

“This was disappointing to Team Pacquiao since they had disclosed the injury and treatment to USADA, USADA approved the treatments and Manny had listed the medication on his pre-fight medical form.”

NAC chairman Francisco Aguilar maintained his stance from late Saturday that the commission was not aware of Pacquiao’s injury and that his pre-fight medical questionnaire clearly stated the fighter did not have an injury. He also said the commission, not USADA, has control over the fight along with the protocols connected to the fight.

“Just because they disclosed it to USADA doesn’t mean they disclosed it to the commission,” Aguilar said Monday. “USADA doesn’t have jurisdiction over the event.”

Aguilar said he has asked the state attorney general’s office to look into the matter. Pacquiao could be guilty of misleading the commission or committing perjury with his responses to the questionnaire. When a fighter signs off on a form for the commission, there’s a line that says: “I hearby swear, under penalty of perjury, that the above information is true and correct to the best of my knowledge.”

Pacquiao signed the form. So did his adviser, Michael Koncz.

The commission may demand that Pacquiao appear in front of it at its June meeting and explain his side. The next commission meeting is scheduled for May 15 and Aguilar said he won’t have received a response from the AG’s office in time to put it on the May agenda.

“The attorney general will look at the disclosure, gather all the facts, make an analysis and come back with a recommendation to the commission as to how to proceed,” Aguilar said. “If we decide to have a hearing, Mr. Pacquiao and his team will have every opportunity to explain themselves to the commission and, if any discipline is needed, it would be determined at such a hearing.”

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on TRwitter: @stevecarprtj.