Floyd Mayweather Jr. (left) connects with a right to the head of Manny Pacquiao during their welterweight title fight in Las Vegas. (Photo: John Locher/Associated Press)

Boxer Manny Pacquiao's failure to disclose a shoulder injury in the run-up to his 2015 match with Floyd Mayweather Jr. didn't trigger any legal injury to viewers who paid to watch the fight.

That, in short, is what a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit concluded Thursday in upholding a lower court decision tossing a batch of class action lawsuits filed against the boxers, their promotion companies, and Home Box Office Inc., the broadcaster of the match dubbed "The Fight of the Century" prior to the lopsided contest. Mayweather won the fight in a unanimous decision after it went the full 12 rounds.

Circuit Judge Jacqueline Nguyen noted that this was the first Ninth Circuit decision to grapple with "the rights of a spectator disappointed by a sporting event." Nguyen pointed out that "although the match may have lacked the drama worthy of the pre-fight hype, Pacquiao's shoulder condition did not prevent him from going the full twelve rounds, the maximum number permitted for professional boxing contests."

"Plaintiffs therefore essentially got what they paid for—a full-length regulation fight between these two boxing legends," wrote Nguyen, who was joined in the decision by Chief Judge Sidney Thomas and Sixth Circuit Judge Ronald Lee Gilman sitting by designation.

Nguyen noted that, if plaintiffs' theory of harm was taken to its logical extreme, it would require all professional athletes to disclose any injury, no matter how minor, or potentially risk "a slew of lawsuits" from disappointed fans.

"Such a result would fundamentally alter the nature of competitive sports: Opponents would undoubtedly use such information to their strategic advantage, resulting in fewer games and matches won through fair play, and gone would be the days of athletes publicly declaring their strength and readiness for fear of a lawsuit alleging that fans were misled," she wrote.

Plaintiffs, who included classes of ticket holders to the fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, consumers who paid $89.95 to watch at home via pay-per-view, and commercial venues that paid up to $10,000 to air the broadcast, were represented at oral argument in March by Hart Robinovitch of Zimmerman Reed in Scottsdale, Arizona. Robinovitch didn't immediately respond to a message seeking comment Thursday.

Daniel Petrocelli of O'Melveny & Myers, who represented Pacquiao and HBO among others, and Mark Tratos of Greenberg Traurig, who represented Mayweather and his promotional company, didn't immediately respond to messages.