Manny Pacquiao Utterly Screwed By Awful Decision Against Jeff Horn

Manny Pacquiao lost a unanimous decision against Jeff Horn Saturday night, and it was absolutely criminal. Pacquiao largely dominated the unpolished Aussie fighter for 12 rounds despite Horn being aggressive throughout the evening. Pacquiao consistently landed the cleaner, harder shots and the fight was almost ended after a dominant ninth round that saw Horn essentially out on his feet.

In the end, the judges returned their near-criminal verdict: 117-111, 115-113, 115-113 all for Horn. It was one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen and another example of why people don’t take combat sports seriously anymore. Pacquiao won that fight, there is absolutely no question about it. My final card had it 116-111 for the Filipino star, that included a 10-8 round in the ninth.

Pacquiao landed 182 punches, Horn landed just 92. Horn threw 625 punches, Pacquiao threw 573. So Horn landed 90 fewer punches and won the fight! Pacquiao landed 32 percent of his punches, Horn landed 15 percent. None of the judges should ever work again. Ever. Walekska Roldan, Chris Flores and Ramon Cerdan should be ashamed of themselves.

Horn was aggressive and kept working for most of the fight, but you don’t get credit for “trying” in boxing, you’re supposed to get credit for clean, effective punching and ring generalship. This was absolutely absurd. Jeff Horn is now your WBO welterweight champion and he absolutely does not deserve to be. He seems like a good kid and all, but you’ve got to be kidding me.

Boxing has been in trouble for years and its judging is a serious problem. This is the second time Pacquiao has been robbed by a decision, the first came after the first fight with Timothy Bradley, which the Filipino dominated.

This should have been a great night for boxing, with a fun fight that a legend dominated. Instead we, as fans, were given hot, steaming garbage instead of a valid decision. But the sport likely scared off legions of fans with yet another horrendous decision. Why invest in a sport that regularly does this?

I can’t think of a good reason.