Manny's worst cut ever, says Jinkee

LAS VEGAS – For over 45 minutes, WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao was closeted in a private room with plastic surgeon Dr. Jerry Roth shortly after he beat Juan Manuel Marquez on a majority 12-round decision at the MGM Grand Garden Arena here Saturday night (yesterday morning, Manila).

The room was in his dressing quarters and closed to media. Pacquiao’s wife Jinkee, Dr. Vicki Belo and cutman Miguel Diaz were among those who watched Dr. Roth patch up a gaping wound above his right eye.  

The cut was opened by a headbutt in the late rounds, according to Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach. Pacquiao said if he suffered the cut earlier, it could’ve changed the complexion of the fight because of the severe handicap.

Jinkee said from what she could recall, it was the worst cut ever inflicted on the world’s No. 1 pound-for-pound champion. The cut took 28 stitches to sew up – eight in the inner layer, eight in the middle layer and 12 in the outer layer.

Jinkee Pacquiao. Joaquin Henson

The procedure took about 30 minutes but Pacquiao was in the room longer because Dr. Roth cleaned it up before the stitching. Diaz said during the fight, the wound wasn’t sanitized and he only stopped the bleeding on a temporary basis. Dr. Roth made sure the wound was sanitized before treating it.

“Dr. Roth is one of the most prominent plastic surgeons in Las Vegas,” said a source. “He stitched up Manny on three layers of skin so in the future, if ever Manny gets hit in the same spot again, it won’t reopen. Dr. Roth did a thorough job of stitching it up. The cut was very deep, about an inch long.”

Pacquiao emerged from the room wearing a white bandage over the cut. He also had a cut on the inner side of his lower lip but Dr. Roth decided not to sew it up.

“It depends on how Manny feels the next day,” said the source. “If Manny is uncomfortable with it, Dr. Roth will sew it up. If not, the wound will heal by itself.”