Manny Pacquiao was not alone in being robbed Down Under.
Boxing was mugged by the judges in Brisbane who awarded a rank home town decision to Jeff Horn. The hard old game is no stranger to controversy but this latest miscarriage of justice came at the wrong moment.
Boxing is in the throes of a thrilling renaissance this year, largely because it has answered the public demand for the best to fight the best.
Nowhere has the upsurge been felt more powerfully than here in the UK. Anthony Joshua’s epic world heavyweight title conquest of the iconic Wladimir Klitschko in front of a 90,000 crowd at Wembley Stadium has been the fulcrum for attracting a wider public.
Tony Bellew, with his emotional under-dog victory, and lame-dog David Haye, with his heroic delaying of the inevitable, turned pre-fight disgrace into combat with dignity.
Heroic exploits by James DeGale and Carl Frampton in America began 2017 in style. And it wasn’t all about winning. DeGale fought a brutal draw with Badou Jack and Frampton, having beaten Leo Santa Cruz last year, narrowly lost an equally exciting rematch.
Anthony Crolla and Kell Brook lost their world titles but by daring to meet challenges from Jorge Linares and Errol Spence Jr respectively they gave the fans here a chance to admire the sublime skills of world-class craftsmen.
Boxing reminded itself that it’s okay to lose if it is in a real fight against an elite opponent, while rematches do the sport no good whatsoever.
In America, Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev, the two best light-heavyweights in the world, went at each other for a second time. And there is more in the offing over there.
Gennady Golovkin, undefeated Kazakh KO king of the middleweights, finally gets his super-fight come September in Las Vegas against Mexican idol Canelo Alvarez.
Now, with boxing set fair, along comes Australia. What happened there at the weekend reopened the flood-gates to the critics, the conspiracy theorists among them.
PACQUIAO-HORN – PUNCH STATS
Punches thrown
Punches landed
Jabs thrown
Jabs landed
Power punches thrown
Power punches landed
Pacquiao
573
182 (32 per cent)
193
59 (31 per cent)
380
123 (32 per cent)
Horn
625
92 (15 per cent)
197
19 (10 per cent)
428
73 (17 per cent)
‘Fix,’ they cried as Horn was declared the winner over the Pacman, who landed twice as many punches.
Alright, it wasn’t the worst travesty of all time. It wasn’t Roy Jones having his gold medal stolen from him at the Seoul Olympics.
Okay, some of the rounds were close. Although I could only give one for certain to the Aussie challenger for the most recent of the numerous world titles held by Pacquiao.
But however any unbiased eye looked at this fight, the wrong man won.
The complaints from Team Pacquiao were restrained. The great man himself, the only boxer ever to be world champion in eight different weight divisions, is too much the gentleman to squeal. And there are vested interests in a rematch in front of another big Aussie crowd.
But for boxing at large this was a blip it could have done without. Two scores of 115-113 in favour of Horn were bad enough. But the 117-111 carded by Waleska Rodan was an outrage which has invited ridicule. Not just of the lady in question but of the sport itself.
Issues over judging are a part of a system which can never be perfect. Sometimes disputed decisions are more a source of fascination than raging controversy. But when they are as dodgy as this, boxing can no longer simply shrug its shoulders.
When one official is so out of kilter with the others ? as well as light years distant from public opinion ? that score needs draconian scrutiny.
The reviewing of rogue cards is just about the only element of boxing conducted in kid gloves. There is a reluctance among the authorities to sanction the offender, when what they should be doing is suspending any judge who gets it manifestly so wrong.
Unlike many on social media, I do not believe the game is bent.
Such scoring is not crooked. It is incompetent. But that does not mean mistakes should go unpunished. Not even when the boxers themselves ? continuing with Canelo and Triple G shortly ? strive so valiantly to uphold the Integrity of the Noble Art.
