Manny's shoulder or David Hayes pinky toe?

They were both horrible excuses given what was happening at the time.

Fights get delayed all the time. Ali vs Liston 2 was the biggest fight in boxing up till that point and people demanded to see the rematch. It got delayed at the time because of Ali's injury. So I have a hard time accepting team Pacquiao claiming they did not want to ruffle feathers due to a last minute injury even if it was legitimate.

The cynic in me believes that it was so much money on the table that they just went for it anyway and used the injury as a convenient excuse in case they lost (which they did, and Pacquiao gave Mayweather no credit at all in an unusually unsportsmanlike fashion).

As for David Haye, it didn't have nearly as much of an impact on boxing simply because him and Wladmir were not as popular and the HW division wasnt what it used to Be. But the hardcore fans at the time definitely chewed him out and made jokes because it's such a tiny minuscule section of the body and ironic for a macho boxer to complain about.

As for the injuries occuring during the fight, team Pacquiao insists it happened beforehand. Possibly to make him look even braver. Thing is, Vitali had a similar injury in his fight with Byrd and many people speculate it's because of how much he was missing punches. Stylistically, Byrd and Mayweather do have some things in common so I'm not sure if it's a coincidence that their opponents ended up with torn shoulder/rotator cuffs.

Haye messing up his toe while running is possible, but I would have kept that to myself honestly. He not only boasted about being able to knockout Wladmir with one hit, he put on an abysmal performance and didn't land much, spending much of the fight on his bike.

 

Pac asked for a painkiller for the injury right before the fight, so it was probably legit.

I think fighters go into fights with niggling injuries all the time, though. Ali was mentioned (not by you), but he had a hernia and needed emergency surgery so in that case it was obviously impossible for the fight to continue as planned. He had his stomach cut open and then stitched together, so it must have been months before he could even start to train again.

The next year he said he had had pain in his right arm when training for Chuvalo and couldn't train that arm properly, and stuff like that is probably fairly common. So my guess is that Pac had problems with his shoulder, but not more than they thought a painkiller would be sufficient. But they messed up the questionnaire thing and didn't get the painkiller, which was a shame.

 

With all due respect, the Mayweather-Pac bout was a half a "BILLION" dollar fight. Those are difficult to reschedule.

When Ali-Liston II was rescheduled, it was held in a 2,000 seat minor league hockey rink (which was half-filled) in rural Maine.

Ali-Liston II was most certainly not the biggest fight in boxing up to that point. They couldn't even find a location to stage it because most places wouldn't touch it. And when it was held, basically no one came.

 

Perhaps it has something to do with Manny Pacquiao being one of the greatest boxers of all-time.

Whereas David Haye .....

 

Klitschko's poisoned water bottle.

 

Add in Max Baers broken right hand against Louis

 

One injury appears legit, Manny Paquaio's shoulder, unlike the twinkle toe of David Haye, phew, which spells excuse. Lol.

 

Ali also had his stomach sliced open in surgery just days before the fight was scheduled. Pac obviously didn't have anything close to that and apparently nothing they wanted to upset such a huge event with.

I don't know if it even bothered him during the fight, but had he gotten his painkiller there wouldn't be much more to be said. Now there will always be some doubt.

And of course, Floyd using an illegal IV when Pac was denied a legal painkiller isn't a good look.

 

So very true, agreed.

 

May-Pac wasn't even a fight. It was a ridiculous exhibition. Neither fighter wanted to fight. They just wanted to contemplate their hundreds of millions of dollars.

 

I was mostly going off the top of my head when I wrote that. Based on documentaries I had watched, it seemed many journalists and fans were furious about the inconclusive anti climactic result of the first fight, which is why there was talk of an immediate rematch in the first place.

I understand just fine that there was tons of money on the line for Mayweather vs Pacquiao. But some people feel like they got scammed out of their money when the so called injury was revealed. They hyped up that stupid fight for 5 years and not only was it boring, but one guy wasn't even at full health. People were threatening to sue.

 

In fairness to Haye............. he more than made up for it fighting 7+ rounds with a snapped achilles.

That must have been pure agony.

99% people can't even stand with that type of injury let alone carrying on fighting

 

Had Pac got the decision, we would be hearing about May's hands being injured again. His own built in excuse if things didn't go well.

It was a cash grab, both were injured, and neither fought with bad intentions. It was very much a sparring match.

Pac/Thurman and May/Canelo are both men's real Swansong.