Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum is very upset with the way Manny Pacquiao's corner was handled on Saturday night, when the Filipino superstar suffered a shocking twelve round decision loss to Jeff Horn, who in the process captured the WBO welterweight title.
The contest took place before a huge crowd of over 51,000 at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia.
The three judges were in agreement, scoring the contest 115-113, 115-113 and 117-111 for Horn (17-0-1, 11 KOs), who was a massive underdog going into the fight.
After the contest, Pacquiao complained that Horn was fighting very dirty - by using his head, elbows, and pushing down on his neck throughout the entire contest. Pacquiao suffered two bad cuts from accident head clashes. In the opinion of Arum, Pacquiao's corner was in chaos during the contest and he says they were way too overconfident coming in. The veteran promoter believes the entire corner dropped the ball in what was a very winnable fight for the eight division world champion. And Arum says the entire corner should be on point here - including head trainer Freddie Roach, assistant trainer Buboy Fernandez, conditioning coach Justin Fortune and cut man Miguel Diaz. “What the hell is wrong with that corner? Why wasn’t Freddie Roach out in the ring between rounds yelling at the referee? It’s his job, and there’s confusion in the corner with the languages, with Buboy and Miguel Diaz yelling and screaming like a maniac,” said Arum to The Los Angeles Times. “And Freddie has to stay close to Manny to give him some advice … to me, they were so overconfident going in — Justin Fortune tells the press that the only way Horn can win is if Manny trips going into the ring. I had seen the kid. I told everybody he was a big, tough kid who could take a punch. I didn’t think he’d beat Manny, but it wasn’t the same Manny.”
2023-10-18 21:34:21
