Manny Pacquiao’s controversial unanimous decision in a loss to Australian fighter Jeff Horn has the boxing community split over what actually transpired in Brisbane on Saturday night.
Horn (17-0-1, 11 KOs) captured the World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight title via an upset over eight-time world champion Pacquiao (59-7-2, 38 KOs).
While many agitated boxing experts and fans alike are calling the fight a “fix”, a “disgrace” and a “robbery”, others are noting that the fight was simply a close one, which could have gone either way.
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Between the two points, however, one thing is obvious: a lopsided scoring is indeed questionable.
And this is why Pacquiao’s camp believes an investigation on one of the judges who scored the fight overwhelmingly in favor of Horn is warranted.
Both boxing judges Chris Flores and Ramon Cerdan scored the fight 115-113 in favor of Horn, while Waleska Roldan’s score sheet had the fight at 117-111.
According to The Daily Telegraph, Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach called for the boxing authorities to look into the matter.
“That was hard, sometimes I think people need to be investigated,” Roach was quoted as saying.
“At least in America where you get odd scores like that with the judges, the head commissioner should ask at some point, ‘Why? Where? Show me how you came up with that score.’”
Interestingly, ESPN Stats & Info had the 38-year-old fighting senator from the Philippines leading at the final punch statistics:
Before the bout, Roach had hinted at a possible retirement for Pacquiao should he suffer a loss from Horn.
“Jeff could derail us really badly. Manny is in a must-win situation, he wants a rematch with [Floyd] Mayweather,” Roach was quoted by the Australian Associated Press (via the Guardian). “And with Mayweather, you have to look good against an opponent, you have to be impressive.”
