By Edward Chaykovsky
ESPN expert analyst and former trainer Teddy Atlas was disappointed with Manny Pacquiao's performance in last Saturday's twelve round decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Afterwards Pacquiao stated that he had an injury to his right shoulder. His trainer Freddie Roach revealed that Pacquiao first injured himself in early April. Pacquiao further claims to have aggravated the injury in the third or fourth round and surgery is now scheduled.
Atlas questions Pacquiao's mindset and the daily fight predictions that were being made by him and Roach - where both men were predicting dominating wins and explosive knockouts.
"When him and Freddie are making these proclamations and saying that they are going to win in these dominant fashions, and his trainer says that he's going to knock him out. You shouldn't be making those statements if you know that you have an injured fighter. And I think I'm fair to say that. I think I'm on fair ground," Atlas told XM Radio.
"If I was a lawyer and I'm not because I didn't go to law school, I would say that exhibit A. - he didn't have the urgency for a guy who was looking to win this type of fight in this type of way. They were taking selfies as they were going down the hallway to the ring and that's just not appropriate. You are going into a ring where you can really get injured, where you can really leave with less of yourself, you have to have certain kind of mindset to go on that arena."
"You have to have a gladiators type of approach - and they are taking selfies as they are walking in? Something is wrong with that kind of picture. I feel that at the end of the day you overcome certain things. If he did have an injured right shoulder, it sure didn't look like it in the fourth round when he was letting the punches go."
