Jeff Horn shocked the boxing world this past weekend by defeating Manny Pacquiao after a hard fought fight in Brisbane, Australia.
After twelve rounds the judges gave the victory to the 27-year old Horn thus crowning him the new WBO world welterweight champion. But many disagreed strongly with the decision.
“Wow! PAC loses by UD? One judge had it 117-111? Wasn’t the fight that I saw! This is what’s wrong with boxing. Horn was very game but I’m hard pressed to see how he could have won that fight by any stretch!” wrote Lennox Lewis on Twitter.
Famous trainer and fight commentator Teddy Atlas says there are only two reasons for Pacquiao’s loss.
“It’s only one of two things, it’s either incompetence or corruption. When you see 117-111, I don’t think anyone could be that incompetent. I’m sorry. If you know the sport, you watch the sport, you can’t be that incompetent,” said Atlas according to boxingscene.com.
It’s safe to say people are not overjoyed by Horn’s victory. Though, the new champion says he knew the scorecards were on his side during the fight.
“I wasn’t really surprised. I was going back to the corner and [Rushton] was letting me know that I was probably winning the majority of the rounds. But obviously, he’s the champion. He’s gonna edge some close rounds. I was happy that I won the fight. I’m just stoked that I won it, especially unanimously,” said Horn to boxingscene.com.
Apparently, there was never even a moment of doubt in Horn’s mind about his victory. He knew what was about to happen when they went to the scorecards.
“But I was really confident we had done enough to win the fight. And thankfully, the judges saw it the same way I did.”