By Edward Chaykovsky
As previously reported, eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao says his surgically repaired shoulder is 80-90 percent healed and he expects to resume training in November or December, with a return to the ring in March.
Pacquiao says he injured the right shoulder during the fourth round of his May 2nd defeat at the hands of Floyd Mayweather Jr. Four days later he had surgery on the shoulder.
If Pacquiao had a choice of opponent for his next ring return, he would obviously select Mayweather (49-0, 26KOs), but the pound-for-pound king announced his retirement from the sport after last month's twelve round decision win over Andre Berto.
“If you ask me, of course, I want a rematch,” Pacquiao said. “I heard that he retired already. If he really retired, then there’s no rematch. But if not...”
Pacquiao is still upset with the way Mayweather fought the contest. He feels Floyd did everything possible to prevent a fan friendly fight.
“He kept moving around and didn’t want to fight toe to toe with me, exchanging punches,” Pacquiao said.
He says a rematch would have a different outcome, now that he's injury-free.
“I think so [things would be different], especially [after] I fixed my shoulder,” Pacquiao said.
