Manny Pacquiao suffered a scratched cornea in his left eye during his lopsided unanimous decision over Adrien Broner in defense of his secondary welterweight world title on Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
The injury, which his team has deemed minor, did not, however, come from one of the only 50 blows Broner (33-4-1, 24 KOs) landed over 12 rounds.
Instead, the scratched cornea occurred somewhere in the middle of the fight when the tape on one of Broner’s gloves scratched his eye during a clinch.
In the dressing room following the fight, medical personnel rinsed Pacquiao’s eye with saline “to see if it was debris. He didn’t get much relief from that and then went up to the press conference,” Fred Sternburg, Pacquiao’s longtime publicist, told ESPN on Monday.
Pacquiao came to the post-fight news conference wearing dark glasses but never mentioned the injury.
A doctor came to see the 40-year-old Pacquiao (61-7-2, 39 KOs), boxing’s only eight-division world champion, in his suite on Sunday morning to check the eye again, Sternburg said.
“He had a patch on his eye and was told it was a scratched cornea and they put an antibiotic ointment in his eye,” Sternburg said.
Sean Gibbons of Pacquiao’s MP Promotions said that Pacquiao might have a follow-up exam on Monday if needed. He also said that Pacquiao had suffered a similar injury to his right eye in a previous fight and that it healed quickly.
When Pacquiao returned to a home he owns in Los Angeles on Sunday, he discovered it had been burglarized.
“They think it happened on fight night,” Sternburg said. “They’re gathering information and taking inventory and the police are investigating. It’s an upsetting situation. They don’t know what’s been stolen, if anything.”
Pacquiao lives in the Philippines, where he is a senator, and has not spent much time at his Los Angeles home since 2016, according to Gibbons. One of Pacquiao’s aunts lives there and serves as its caretaker.
“(The burglars) basically went in and ransacked the senator’s bedroom. It seems like they found nothing and then they bailed,” Gibbons said.
Pacquiao is scheduled to return to the Philippines this week but plans to attend the Los Angeles Lakers-Golden State Warriors game on Monday night at Staples Center in Los Angeles.