Even Stephen Smith, a respected sports analyst, could not contain his disappointment after the Pacquiao-Horn fight yesterday, July 2 proclaimed the Australian boxer as the new WBO Welterweight champion.
In an ESPN post-fight discussion, Smith criticized the judges’ unanimous decision that favored the Australian fighter. Official judges scorecards were at 117-111, 115-113 and 115-113, making the Filipino champ lose his world welterweight title to the 29-year old school teacher.
Smith noted that Horn only managed to win four rounds based on his personal tally card. He continued that Horn’s size advantage was used too much.
“Manny Pacquiao was quicker, he was the better boxer, he was more experienced, he was winning on points, he was landing more punches as Compubox showed … I (scored) 116-112 Manny Pacquiao … it’s stuff like this that hurts the sport of boxing. You don’t see this in the UFC … but you see this kind of garbage that just took place…I mean what did we just see? It’s horrible! something’s wrong with this decision. It was bogus,” he explained.
Netizens were also quick to express their disappointments through different social media profiles.
Many were disappointed with the “cookery” when decision time came saying that Horn’s face was not the face of a winner. Netizens claimed Pacquiao was robbed of the title.
“It’s Showtime” host Teddy Corpuz expressed his disgust: “Headlock while punching, headbutts, home cooking. Hahaha home court advantage. Punta kayo sa Pilipinas pramis! #PacquiaoHorn”.
NBA Superstar Kobe Bryant posted the hashtag #PacquiaoHorn accompanied with a confused gif of Ice Cube.
Singer-Actor Donnie Wahlberg tweeted: “Got off stage, turned on #PacquiaoHorn fight on @espn, instead of a fight I see #PacMan get robbed on live TV and nobody even got arrested?!”
Hollywood actor Samuel L. Jackson tweeted: “Uhhhhhhh, can U Say Bullshit??!!Manny got Fucked!!! That’s the Face of a Winner??!”
While rapper LL Cool J had something to say to the judging committee. He posted: “Boxing needs to figure out a new way of judging these fights. This pac man fight was a pure robbery.”