There hasn’t been much to talk about Mayweather-Berto from casual fans, but on the day of the final press conference before the fight, SB Nation dropped a bombshell that Mayweather was allowed to use an IV to hydrate after the weigh-in.
On the surface, it wouldn’t appear to be a big deal because the fluids in the IV were legal (250-milliliter mixture of saline and multivitamins and a 500-milliliter mixture of saline and Vitamin C).
But, there are some issues that Mayweather or his team will have to address at some point. The three main ones are these.
1- Receiving fluids in IV form is banned by World Anti-Doping Agency guidelines.
2- Such injections can mask other things.
3- Pacquiao wasn’t allowed his shoulder injection before the fight.
The United States Anti-Doping Agency granted Mayweather an exemption, but three weeks later.
Would any of this had changed the outcome of the fight? Probably not, but there are protocols that have to be followed and for whatever reason they were ignored by Mayweather and then USADA sort of just decided to give him a pass after the fact.
Not a good look for boxing overall, but it does give Mayweather-Berto some juice, no pun intended, but for reasons that Mayweather and the Money Team probably would have preferred stayed out of the public’s eye.