‘I’LL URGE PACQUIAO TO QUIT’

BRISBANE: Manny Pacquiao's trainer advised the Filipino legend to quit boxing on Monday after his sensational defeat to unheralded Australian Jeff Horn.

While controversy raged over the scoring of Sunday's World Boxing Organisation welterweight title bout in Brisbane, after all three judges awarded it to unbeaten Horn, there were doubts whether 38-year-old Pacquiao would return for a possible rematch. Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach said he would consider advising Pacquiao to retire after a glittering 22-year professional career in which he won world titles at an unprecedented eight weight divisions.

“I'm going to talk to Manny about maybe calling it a day, maybe this is it,” Roach said.

Given no chance by most observers, the 29-year-old Horn's ultraaggressive style rocked Pacquiao, with the three judges scoring the fight 117-111, 115-113 and 115-113 to the Australian before 51,000 fans at Suncorp Stadium. Pacquiao, (59-7-2) who insisted on a Brisbane rematch as a clause in his contract for the fight, declared however that he would “absolutely” return for a rematch.

“We have a clause for a rematch. No problem,” Pacquiao said in the ring after the judges' decision.

But Australian boxing great and three-time world champion Jeff Fenech also called for Pacquiao, who retired briefly last year, to hang up his gloves for good this time.

“If they let Manny fight again, that's stupid,” Fenech said. He should go relax and enjoy the money he has made. He's got nothing to prove. Retire. Jeff fought the right fight and took Manny to places he'd not been before ... he made it a bit dirty.” A sense of Pacquiao's declining powers is that the Philippines senator hasn't stopped an opponent in eight years. Roach however called for an investigation into the scoring of American judge Waleska Roldan. She had the bout 117-111 to Horn, giving Pacquiao only three of the 12 rounds, despite Horn finishing the fight badly bruised and with a shut right eye. According to Compubox statistics, Pacquiao landed almost twice as many punches as Horn — 182 to 92.

Judges American Chris Flores and Argentine Ramon Cerdan both thought it was closer, but Horn had edged the fight 115-113.

“I respect the judges' decision,” Pacquiao said. “He was much tougher than I expected. Much, much tougher.”

Pacquiao told Philippines television: “We thought that we won this fight.” However, top rank veteran supremo Bob Arum, who was ringside, felt the win was fair. “It could have gone either way,” he said.

“A couple of close rounds, but you can't argue with the result. I scored a lot of the early rounds for Jeff. Then I had Manny coming back in the middle. The 12th round, Jeff really won. If you give Manny the 11th, you have it a draw. You give Jeff the 11th, it's 7-5.”

Horn's father, Jeff Snr, revealed after the fight that he had been ready to throw in the towel after the brutal ninth round. His son had been battered by Pacquiao and blood was streaming from a nasty cut over Horn's right eye. As American referee Mark Nelson made his way to Horn's corner to ask them whether they wanted to stop the fight, Jeff Snr feared the worst.

“He was dead in the water in round nine, he was gone,” Jeff Snr said.

“I was very worried. If I had a towel I may have thrown it myself in the ninth. I looked at his eyes and I thought he was out on his feet. I really thought he was in danger of getting hurt in round nine.

“I didn't expect him to come back like he did in round 10.” MOSCOW: Germany survived a whirlwind assault by Chile and capitalised on a mistake by the South Americans to claim a 1-0 win in a pulsating, badtempered Confederations Cup final in the Russian city of St Petersburg on Sunday.

Lars Stindl scored the only goal into an empty net in the 20th minute after Chile midfielder Marcelo Diaz gave the ball away on the edge of his own penalty area. It came completely against the run of play in a first half dominated by Chile, but the more experienced South American champions — facing a youthful, experimental German side — could find no way past a team that is effective on the counterattack.

Chile, playing with their trademark high-octane style and driven forward by another relentless display by Chile midfielder Arturo Vidal, dominated the match but were let down by poor finishing.

Despite dominating for long spells, Chile failed to turn 61 percent possession and 20 shots — compared with the Germans' eight — into goals.

Chile's frustrations were clear in the second half when Vidal squared up to Bayern Munich teammate Joshua Kimmich, who was also shoved by Gary Medel. There was a controversial incident involving video technology in the second half when Chile defender Gonzalo Jara elbowed Timo Werner by the touchline. Serbian referee Milorad Mazic initially missed the incident, but was alerted to it by the video assistants and then let Jara off with a yellow card instead of showing a red. There was late drama deep in stoppage time when Germany goalkeeper Marc-andre ter Stegen dived to push away an Alexis Sanchez free kick.

With time running out, both Vidal and substitute Angelo Sagal fired over the bar, but the German defence held firm. The victory was a first Confederations Cup trophy for Germany who next year in Russia will be seeking backto-back World Cup titles.

The win could be a bad omen for Germany, however, as no team has ever won the football World Cup after lifting the Confederations Cup the year before.