Pacquiao fans lash out at ‘ crazy’ scoring and tactics
MANNY Pacquiao’s camp slammed the officials after the Filipino great’s loss to Jeff Horn.
“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 with a badly swollen face and needing stitches over his right eye.
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 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 vocal.
“Boxing is a joke, and it proves it again tonight. Are you kidding me with those scorecards? # joke # rigged,” Rodgers said on Twitter.
The fight statistics seemed to back the belief that Pacquiao had done more than enough to win. Broadcaster ESPN said Pacquiao had landed 182 punches to 82 from the challenger over the 12 rounds.
Fortune, who once fought against Lewis and has been with Pacquiao since 2002, said Horn was 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.
Two of the judges, Waleska Roldan and Chris Flores, were from the US while the third, Ramon Cerdan, was from Argentina. The referee, Mark Nelson, was also from the US.