It’s coming up to three years since Manny Pacquiao last fought as a professional when he was beaten by Yordenis Ugas.
Pacquiao walked away from boxing after the points loss, but his former coach, Justin Fortune, who was part of many Pacquiao fight camps, has identified one reason why Pacquiao may have lost that bout.
In a lengthy career that took in many magical highs, Fortune was often part of Pacquiao’s training set-up thanks to his background in both boxing and conditioning.
For the Ugas fight, it appeared that Father Time had eventually caught up with the miraculous Filipino, but Fortune has offered an alternative explanation for the setback.
“Freddie blamed me for Manny's last fight against Ugas,” said Fortune when speaking about the fight to Lucky Block.
“I went off to watch Ugas get his hands wrapped, when I left there was a masseuse there and I said do not touch my fighter, Manny's never had a massage before a fight in 22 years, don't touch him.
“Why would you touch a fighter before a fight? I come back and he’s massaging Pacquiao. I said, ‘what are you doing, he’d be too relaxed and you're releasing toxins into the body that should not be there and it's out of routine, he's never done it in 20 years.’
“Manny lost and Freddie of course won't take the blame for anything, so he blamed me instead for what happened. No-one gets a massage before a fight, and it affected his performance. When I walked in and saw it I screamed some expletives that would embarrass my mum.”
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