Pacquiao’s defeat is telling
Manny Pacquiao still has his name, if not his punch.
That should get him another fight or two, though not at the rate of pay to which he’s become accustomed. And it’s not enough to get him a second fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr., a bout that wasn’t likely to happen even before his controversial loss Saturday night in Australia to hometown hero Jeff Horn.
At the age of 38, Pacquiao is pretty much done. His latest attempt at wiping away the stain left from his fight with Mayweather ended with a fighter who wouldn’t have survived five rounds with him in his prime celebrating in front of a crowd of 51,052 at a rugby stadium in Brisbane.
Pacquiao’s supporters will howl that the judging was horrendous, and on at least one card (117-111, Horn) it was. But it was Pacquiao who allowed the fight to be as close as it was, and the other two judges had it 115113 in Horn’s favor.
Besides, Pacquiao knew going in what was expected of him. He needed to dominate and he didn’t, outside of a ninth round where he tried his best to take Horn out only to punch himself out and leave the final rounds in Horn’s hands.
After 22 years as a pro, Pacquiao should have known the old boxing axiom: Go to someone’s hometown, and sometimes you get a hometown decision.
“When you come into someone’s backyard, you need to really do a number on them or knock them out,” Pacquiao said. “That’s boxing. You get given a gift sometimes, you get (swindled) sometimes. But when you come to someone’s house, you’re supposed to mess them up, make a statement. Never leave it in the judge’s hands.”
Forget about the punch counts, which showed Pacquiao landing twice the number of punches that Horn did. Those punches are counted by humans and with the awkward style of both fighters, it was difficult without the benefit of slow-motion replays to see just who landed what as the two flurried furiously at times in the ring.
The real problem was that Pacquiao couldn’t finish Horn in the ninth round, something that isn’t new for the Filipino great, who hasn’t stopped anyone in eight years. He also couldn’t win the 12th round on any scorecard, when a strong final round would have salvaged a draw in the welterweight title bout.
The top fighters do that. But Pacquiao is no longer among the elite, which is why he had to go to Australia in the first place to score a reputed $10 million payday.
The talk before the fight was that there weren’t many opponents for Pacquiao after Horn, unless he was offered up as fodder for Terrence Crawford or Keith Thurman in one final effort to cash in on his name. At least now he’ll get a rematch with Horn, assuming he can get enough time away from his duties as a senator in the Philippines to take the fight.
“That’s the decision of the judges. I respect that,” Pacquiao said afterward. “We have a rematch clause, so no problem.”
The fact is, Pacquiao is an aging fighter who has been in too many ring wars. Time catches up with all fighters, and it looked for long stretches in Saturday night’s fight like it finally caught up with him.