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For the second time in his last four fights, pay-per-view titan Floyd Mayweather Jr has suffered an injury in training that will postpone a major boxing event he was headlining.
Bad Left Hook just learned from chief Mayweather advisor Leonard Ellerbe that the five-division world champion broke his right hand in sparring on Saturday. Mayweather, 35, had struggled frequently with hand issues in the past but appeared to have gotten over them in recent years. Mayweather credited hand and hand wrap specialist Rafael Garcia with the change.
Now, however, the problem seems to have re-emerged, and the result will be the delay of the year's biggest fight. Mayweather was scheduled to move up in weight to challenge for Miguel Cotto's WBA light middleweight title in Las Vegas on May 5. Cotto is the sport's third-biggest star after Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, giving the bout the potential to be an even bigger box office success than Mayweather's other ring ventures over the last five years. The fight was to take place about a month before Mayweather was set to begin serving an 87-day jail sentence stemming from a domestic violence charge rooted in an altercation with the mother of his children.
Mayweather will be eligible for an early release pending good behavior. Ellerbe stated that the new date of the fight could be effected by how much of the sentence Mayweather ends up serving.
In 2009, Mayweather was set to make his return to the ring following a two-year hiatus to take on Juan Manuel Marquez in July. However, Mayweather suffered a rib injury in training that led to the fight being pushed back to September.
In a related story, happy April Fool's Day.
(Article by Anthony Wilson Jr)