By Edward Chaykovsky
Michael Koncz, adviser to Manny Pacquiao, is ready to take the full weight of the consequences that are possibly going to come from the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which is upset with Filipino star for failing to disclose a shoulder injury prior to his twelve round decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. this past Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
The NSAC is going to have the state attorney general's office investigate as to why Pacquiao checked "no" a day before the fight on a commission questionnaire asking if he had a shoulder injury.
According to a report on Fox Sports, Nevada Athletic Commission chairman Francisco Aguilar said Monday that Pacquiao could face a possible fine or suspension for not answering the question accurately on a form he filled out prior to last Friday's official weigh-in.
Following Pacquiao's loss to Mayweather, the boxer and his promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank revealed that Manny had suffered a right shoulder injury several weeks ago in training camp. An MRI was taken weeks ago and revealed a tear.
The twelve round fight further aggravated the injury, which is now being reported to be a torn rotator cuff. Pacquiao will undergo surgery which is likely going to keep him out of the ring until next year.
Aguilar says the commission first became aware of the injury about 90 minutes before the fight, when Pacquiao's camp made a request for the boxer to get an anti-inflammatory shot on his shoulder, which the NSAC denied because they had no knowledge or confirmation of an actual injury. Arum says USADA [US Anti-Doping Agency] approved the anti-inflammatory medication [which USADA confirms they did].
USADA was retained to handle the random testing of both boxers for banned substances in training and the night of the fight.
Travis Tygart, the CEO of USADA, told the New York Daily News that Pacquiao’s camp let the boxer down failing to disclose his shoulder injury. While his organization approved the medications, he says USADA was never advised that Pacquiao was using them to treat a shoulder injury.
“If you're a caring person and Manny actually had an injury, while it has nothing to do with anti-doping, his camp let him down by inaccurately filling out the paperwork for the Nevada Commission in violation of its rules,” said Tygart. “He didn't get the medication that he otherwise could have used. You feel sorry that his team let him down the way that they did. His team either committed an egregious mistake, or their gamesmanship by not disclosing something that could give the opponent a tactical advantage — a shoulder injury — came back to bite them.
“Or they were worried the fight was going to get cancelled because of the injury, and they weren't going to get paid. These guys know better.”
Koncz is claiming that he was the actual person to fill out the medical questionnaire and made a mistake by checking the wrong box when it came to the shoulder injury question.
“Number one, Manny didn't check the box,” said Koncz to the New York Daily News. “I checked it. It was just an inadvertent mistake. If I was trying to hide anything, would I have listed all the medications on the sheet that he intended to use? We weren't trying to hide anything. I just don't think I read the questionnaire correctly.
“I’m going to take full responsibility for what happened. The wrong box was checked. But I think part of the responsibility also lies with the commission. Wouldn't you ask a question about all these medications [on the questionnaire]? The bottom line is that we weren't trying to hide anything. If we had wanted to, we could have done the injection at the hotel before the fight and nobody would have known but we didn't want to hide anything.”
However, Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Bob Bennett has a different version of the story. He told Fox Sports that Pacquiao filled out the form himself and understood the questions.
A copy of the form (found in this link) was posted on Monday on the True.Ink website , signed by both Pacquiao and his adviser, Michael Koncz.
"It's not just the fact he didn't fill out the question completely, it was that he wasn't honest and they didn't tell us a month ago when he had the shoulder injury," Bennett said.
"They're not obligated to, but two hours before the fight they wanted a shot that's a pain killer in essence. That put us in a very precarious position."
