BRISBANE—Manny Pacquiao’s camp Sunday slammed the officials after the Filipino great lost his World Boxing Organisation welterweight title in a controversial unanimous decision to Australia’s Jeff Horn on Sunday.
“The referee was sketchy, the judges were crazy,” fumed Pacquiao’s strength and conditioning coach Justin Fortune, who is a former Australian heavyweight champion.
“Manny lost the fight, but Jeff Horn looks like a pumpkin,” Fortune added, referring to Horn who finished the fight with a badly swollen face and needing stitches over his right eye.
in Brisbane. AFP
The three judges scored the fight 117-111, 115-113 and 115-113 to Horn.
“Those scores, that card? It should be the other way around,” said Fortune.
The result that caused dismay on social media among boxing and sporting greats.
“This is what’s wrong with boxing,” tweeted former undisputed world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis.
“Horn was very game but I’m hard pressed to see how he could have won that fight by any stretch!”
American football quarterback Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers was equally forthright.
“Boxing is a joke, and it proves it again tonight. Are you kidding me with those scorecards? #joke #rigged,” Rodgers said on Twitter.
Baseball and NFL legend Deion Sanders said: “@mannypacquiao was robbed! I’m really upset right now. Really. This is ignorant. God bless u Manny and all u do for your country. #Truth.”
The fight statistics seemed to back the belief that Pacquiao had done more than enough to win.
Broadcaster ESPN said that Pacquiao had landed 182 punches to 82 from the challenger over the 12 rounds in front of more than 51,000 fans in Horn’s home town of Brisbane.
Fortune, who once fought against Lewis and has been with Pacquiao since 2002, said Horn had been allowed to get away with a host of illegal tactics as he brawled his way to victory.
“That’s what you get down here,” he said of the tactics.
“You’d never get away with that anywhere else in the world. You’d be penalised points.
“I don’t have a problem with dirty fighting and that’s what it was, a fight. You do what you have to to win.”
Two of the judges, Waleska Roldan and Chris Flores, were from the United States while the third, Ramon Cerdan, was from Argentina. The referee, Mark Nelson, was also from the US.
Pacquiao did not speak to media at the Suncorp Stadium after the fight but said on Philippines television: “We thought that we won this fight.”
The 38-year-old said he would welcome a rematch against the Australian former schoolteacher.
“Well, it depends, there is no problem with me if there’s a rematch,” Pacquiao said. “It would be better if the rematch would be held in the Philippines.
“To the Filipino nation, thank you for the love and support that you showed me.”
Sports stars like Kobe Bryant and Chauncey Billups, legendary trainer Teddy Atlas, ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith and Hollywood star Samuel L. Jackson also had a thing or two to say about the outcome.
Atlas, who was at ringside as commentator, was fuming.
“They gave a trophy, a win, a huge win to Horn the local kid for trying hard,” said Atlas. “You’re not supposed to get it for trying hard. You’re supposed to get it for winning and I thought Pacquiao won the fight if you go by the rules, the real rules.”
Smith was also upset, bashing the judges and saying the decision kills boxing and helps other contact sports such as mixed martial arts to flourish.
“The thing that I’m depressed about is that I don’t have the three names and the mug shot of each of the officials for the crime that they committed by robbing Manny Pacquiao tonight,” said Smith. “It’s stuff like this that hurts the sport of boxing. You don’t see this in the UFC. You don’t see this with Dana White. But you see this kind of garbage that just took place. Are those officials from Australia? What did we just see? It’s a horrible decision. Let’s find their home address, send them some mail. There was something wrong with this decision, it was bogus!”
“Boxing is wack!!!! Pac-man got robbed again…This is why MMA is so big now..SMH,” said Billups, the retired NBA player of the Detroit Pistons and who is one of those being considered to become the General Manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Jackson, star of cult classic movies such as Pulp Fiction and Snakes on a Plane, took note of Horn’s face, which was a total mess.
“Uhhhhhhh, can U Say Bulls**t??!!Manny got F****d!!! That’s the Face of a Winner??!” posted Jackson on Twitter referring to Horn’s swollen and badly battered face, with a huge cut above the right eye.
Bryant, a self-confessed Pacquiao fan, posted on Twitter a GIF showing a close-up of rapper and actor Ice Cube in disbelief, his mouth agape.
