Jeff Horn’s upset victory over Manny Pacquiao may be re-scored but the Australian’s welterweight world title is safe.
The World Boxing Organisation has agreed to a Filipino government department’s request to review Sunday’s fight after the legendary Pacquiao described the unanimous decision against him as unfair.
The Philippines Games and Amusements Board’s (GAB) based their request on protecting boxing’s integrity, citing possible miscalls by the referee and judges.
But the WBO reiterated its only hope of revoking the fight judges’ decision rests on proving fraud in match officiating.
“I would be very grateful if the GAB can provide any evidence indicating fraud or violation of law,” WBO president Francisco Valcarcel said in his response to the request.
“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.”
Five anonymous judges will review the bout, assigning their own scores to rounds.
“Then, 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,” Valcarcel said.
“This means that three of the five officials have to agree to determine which fighter won the round.”
The original fight was scored 117-111, 115-113, 115-113 by judges Waleksa Roldan, Chris Flores and Ramon Cerdan respectively, with Roldan coming in for particularly scathing criticism over her scorecard.
Valcarcel backed the judges, who have each overseen hundreds of fights.
“The officials who participated in this fight are all professional, distinguished, honest and honourable human beings,” he said.
Oingo Boingo
Guest
Manny displaying generation F'd , bratt like behaviour. Take it on the chin , get 10 mill for the rematch and beat him comprehensively , that's the only solution. Or alternatively get 10 mill for the rematch , cop a second belting and retire with dignity.
Gray-Hand
Guest
the fight will be restored in Manny's favour, Manny will claim victory and retire, and Horn will keep the belt.
Big Steve
Guest
Manny is just taking the gloss of the end of his career now. very unprofessional and he is just like the rest of the boxing world.
Michaelj
Guest
Pacquiao should retire immediately instead. He is a legend but recent results indicate a loss of sharpness. It would be tragic if he ended up like Ali because he went one or two too many times around the ring. Manny owes it to his family to stay healthy. He has nothing left to prove.
BigJ
Roar Guru
Exactly
nick
Guest
So what does this mean if the "anonymous" judges come up with a different result. Horn is champion but Manny goes around claiming he won. Sounds much like what is happening now. Won't resolve a thing. As in many sports abide by the judges decision. Can Horn then claim these judges were paid off. On and on and on. Let it go.
Will
Guest
I expect Manny will win the revision but barely. I myself was expecting the initial result to be a draw but am looking forward to the rematch no matter what this outcome shows. One thing is for sure though... no matter how much corruption stains boxing, it is not as bad as the constant whinging and crying by the Americans when a close contest doesn't get called in their favour.
Mike from tari
Guest
Acquiescing to a Government Department is pretty poor.
BigJ
Roar Guru
Of course the WBO is not going to reverse the decision, every man and his dog knew that Horn won that fight and no amount of judges reviews is going to change that. Just orgainse the rematch.