Another day, another robbery in the sport of boxing.
Eleven-time world champion Manny Pacquiao was taken to the cleaners Saturday night after losing a unanimous, but highly controversial decision to unknown and unheralded Australian Jeff Horn. Please pardon me as I save my crocodile tears and outrage for a more worthwhile occasion.
Yes, the scorecards (117-111, 115-113, 115-113) were utterly ridiculous. According to CompuBox, Horn (17-0-1, 11 KO) somehow managed to win a fight in which he landed just 92 punches. Meanwhile, Pacquiao (59-7-2, 38 KO) nearly doubled his opponents landed punches by connecting on 182 blows.
Horn was the more active and aggressive fighter, and he should get praise for bringing the fight to his opponent. However, judges are supposed to grade on effective aggression. How effective could Horn’s aggression have been if he only was able to land 15 percent of his punches? At a fight where he certainly was not at his best, Pacquiao still landed 32 percent of his punches.
If headlocks and head butts are counted as scoring blows Down Under, then Horn most certainly deserved the victory. There’s really no feasible way that Horn should have been declared as the winner.
The reason I’m not up in arms about the robbery is because Pacquiao never should have been fighting Horn in the first place. Pacquiao, one of the greatest fighters of his generation, traveled to Brisbane for what was supposed to be a quick cash grab against an unknown fighter.
At 38-years-old, Pacquiao doesn’t like have too many fights remaining in his career. Excellent potential matchups exist with young stars such as WBC and WBO super lightweight champion Terence Crawford, WBC and WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman,IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. or other contenders such as Danny Garcia and Shawn Porter.
If Pacquiao would rather mail it in and milk his last few fights against mediocre competition, he should at least know better than to travel to a lesser opponent’s hometown with an unknown referee and unknown judges. It’s a recipe for disaster.
Had Pacquiao been composed enough to finish Horn during the ninth round, when he was nearly knocked out on his feet, none of this would matter. “Pac Man” would’ve cashed his $10 million check and probably went on to fight another underwhelming opponent.
However, perhaps sensing that his performance was subpar, compared to his usual standards, Pacquiao got sloppy and whiffed over and over again. The veteran allowed his unproven opponent to survive the round. Now, his next underwhelming opponent will once again be Horn, courtesy of the rematch clause.
Hopefully, Pacquiao has learned his lesson, but probably not. As amazing as Pacquiao has been inside the ring, when it comes to selecting opponents, he has generally deferred to his promoter Bob Arum.
This is the same Arum who once said, “Yesterday, I was lying. Today, I’m telling the truth.”
It’s also the same Arum who defended the judges’ scorecards and even brought up the revered names of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.
“I thought that Jeff [Horn], watching it, had gotten off to a big lead,” Arum said. “And then Manny came back, and then Jeff did well at the end. That’s how it was. That’s like an Ali-Fraizer fight.”
Green with envy
“I love it when a plan comes together.” – John “Hannibal” Smith, The A-Team
Fans in Boston have two new reasons to be excited. First, St. Louis native Jayson Tatum showed up and showed out in his first summer league game for the Celtics. Tatum dropped 21 points, seven rebounds and five steals in his NBA debut. He also drained the game-winning shot.
The cherry on top of his impressive showing is that the performance and the victory came against Markelle Fultz and the Philadelphia 76ers. Tatum and Fultz will forever be linked together after the Celtics dealt the number one overall pick to the 76ers in this year’s draft.
For the record, Fultz also played well, scoring 17 points in his first Summer League game. However, he missed a tough layup during the final seconds that would’ve won the game.
The other big news out of Boston happened on the 4th of July when Gordon Hayward decided to leave the Utah Jazz to join the Celtics in free agency. Hayward is expected to sign a four year, $128 million max contract with the Celtics.
In Hayward, the Celtics are getting an All-Star who averaged 21.9 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game. He will give the Celtics another top flight scorer to pair alongside Isaiah Thomas, who averaged 28.9 points this past season. Hayward has also developed into a very good defender over the past few seasons.
With the additions of Hayward and Tatum, the Boston Celtics are now a legitimate threat to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Remember, it was the Celtics, not the Cavs, that finished first in the Eastern Conference standings.
Even though the Celtics whiffed on trying to acquire Paul George from the Indiana Pacers, they still have a gazillion first-round draft picks over the next few years. Expect them to take another shot at landing another big-time player near the trade deadline. My guess is they’ll either try to land a pass-first point guard to facilitate the offense or another big man since the team will have to renounce to rights to Kelly Olynyk in order to sign Hayward.
With coaching savant Brad Stevens at the helm, there’s no doubt that the Celtics are the future of the Eastern Conference. With Gordon and Tatum on board, the future could be now.
Follow Ishmael and In the Clutch on Twitter @IshmaelSistrunk
