Judges slammed after shock Pacman loss

Brisbane – Manny Pacquiao’s camp yesterday slammed the officials after the Filipino great lost his World Boxing Organisation welterweight title in a controversial unanimous decision to Australia’s Jeff Horn (right).

“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.

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.

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 illegal tactics as he brawled his way to victory.

“You’d never get away with that anywhere else in the world,’’ he added.