LAS VEGAS — The people who paid $99.95 to watch at home had no clue.
Neither did those spending $40,000 or more for a ringside seat Saturday night in Las Vegas.
And, surely, the bettor who wagered $500,000 at the MGM Grand sports book on Manny Pacquiao to beat Floyd Mayweather Jr. wasn't in the loop.
They all thought they were getting the Fight of the Century. Two fighters who, if not in their prime, were at least in peak condition for the fight of their lives.
What they got instead was a one-armed Pacquiao chasing Mayweather around the ring for 12 rounds. The Filipino who normally is a punching machine landed only 18 right jabs and didn't even throw as many punches as the defensive-minded Mayweather.
His shoulder had been injured in training. Injured so badly that Pacquiao will undergo surgery this week for a rotator cuff tear.
Yet the fight went on. No one outside the Pacquiao camp knew until two hours before the fight, when his handlers unsuccessfully sought permission from Nevada boxing officials for a shot of Toradol, an anti-inflammatory used to treat acute pain.
Fighters are tough guys. They often enter the ring not 100 percent because in boxing it's an unwritten rule that the fight must go on.