(Eagle News) — Let the people judge for themselves.
This was the reaction of Manny Pacquiao to the World Boxing Organization’s decision to award the welterweight title victory to Australian boxer Jeff Horn rather than to himself.
The WBO reviewed the fight between the Australian and the Filipino on July 2 after Pacquiao, backed by the Philippine government’s sports regulatory body, criticized the referee and the judges and demanded a review.
Horn was declared the winner after he got a 12-round unanimous decision from the judges.
“Let the people judge for themselves. People saw what happened,” Pacquiao, also a senator, said on Tuesday.
He also took an apparent swipe at the judges of the bout, saying “we have seen worse judgments in the past where judges manipulated results.”
“Nothing surprises me now,” he said.
Upon the review, the WBO ruled that Pacquiao won the 3rd, the 8th and 9th by 100 percent; the 5th round by 80 percent; and the 11th round by 60 percent.
Horn on the other hand, it said, won the 1st, 6th and 12th rounds by 100 percent; rounds 2, 4, and 7 by 80 percent; and the 10th round by 60 percent.
“From the results, it can be established that Pacquiao won five rounds while Horn won seven rounds. Based on this analysis, Jeff Horn was the winner of the bout,” the WBO said. (Meanne Corvera, Eagle News Service; Agence France Presse)
