…And Justice For All?
Manny Pacquiao lost his WBO welterweight title to Jeff Horn a couple of weeks back in a controversial unanimous decision loss that divided the boxing world. As expected, the decision did not sit well with Pacquiao and his team. Immediately after the fight, they promised to take action.
A local Philippino sanctioning body backed Pacquiao and sent a letter to the WBO. You can read the letter here.
According to The Guardian, The WBO has now given another update saying that they will review the fight.
A group of five anonymous judges will watch the fight again with no sound and then provide a scorecard and the results will be released afterward. However, the original decision cannot be overturned.
“The purpose of this review is to be able to give the fans certainty of who was the winner of the bout, even though we do not have the power to reverse the decision of the judges. We will tabulate the results to ascertain clearly which rounds each fighter won using an average scale based on 60, 80 and 100 per cent. This means that three of the five officials have to agree to determine which fighter won the round,” explained WBO President Francisco Varcalcel according to The Guardian.
Pacquiao has a rematch clause in his contract. Both “Pac Man” and Horn have expressed interest in fighting again.