Former four division world champion, Juan Manuel Marquez, knows Manny Pacquiao very well.
He faced the Filipino superstar four times – going 1-2-1 in their four fight series. His two decision losses to Pacquiao were both viewed as controversial. In their fourth and final meeting in 2012, Marquez connected with a huge counter that knocked Pacquiao out cold in the sixth round.
Last weekend, Pacquiao was shocked by huge underdog Jeff Horn, who won a twelve round decision to capture the WBO welterweight title. The scores of 115-113, 117-111 and 115-113 were viewed as controversial by many observers.
For Marquez, the most shocking aspect of the fight was Pacquiao’s inability to finish Horn in the tenth round.
Horn was badly hurt in the ninth round and took so much punishment that referee Mark Nelson nearly stopped the fight before the start of the tenth. He asked Horn to “show something” in round ten or the fight would have been stopped, so the Australian came out swinging.
“I saw the fight with Pacquiao. Well, what surprised me was when he had Horn in bad shape in the ninth, and then he did not go after him in the tenth and that was a mistake because that round went to Horn. When the referee told Horn to show him something so he wouldn’t stop the fight, Horn came out with everything and at that moment Pacquiao was surprised and also Freddie Roach was surprised,” said Marquez to ESPN Deportes.
“Jeff Horn made a good fight but the judges were wrong, they were wrong again to give him the decision and the world knows. I had him winning by four points and somehow I think it should have been like that.”
“People say that boxing no longer makes sense, but boxing is not to blame. You have to put the blame on judges who know that they should be doing their jobs well. There is no way that you can blame boxing, it’s the [officials], from the judges to the promoters and even the referee. The referee, for example, he never took a point from Horn for use of the head or elbow… those people are the ones that are ruining boxing.”
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