To call ESPN boxing broadcaster Teddy Atlas upset at how the Manny Pacquiao vs. Jeff Horn was scored would be an understatement.
Atlas was very critical at the end of the ESPN broadcast of the welterweight title fight. He was even so critical at the result, when Horn, the new WBO welterweight champion was being interviewed by ESPN, Atlas told Horn he did not think he deserve to win the fight.
Horn won the fight via unanimous decision (117-111, 115-113, 115-113) and Atlas highlighted the 117-111 scorecard from judge Waleska Roldan as a key reason why he believes this was a classic case of corruption when he was on SportsCenter as soon as the fight had ended.
"It's a corrupt sport. I've been a part of this for 45 years and I don't know the cute ways of getting your point across without telling the truth. I only know one way and that's go to the front door and tell the truth. It's a little blunt, it's a little uncomfortable, but we have a corrupt sport.
“It’s only one of two things, it’s either incompetence or corruption and when you see 117-111, I don’t think anyone could be that incompetent. I’m sorry. If you know the sport, you watch the sport, you can’t be that incompetent. You see who’s landing clean, who’s just throwing, who’s not landing clean, who almost got knocked out. You can’t be that incompetent.
“So what else could it be? Corruption. Nothing else. I’m sorry. I love this sport, it’s the greatest sport in the world. It was a great day, a great night back where you guys are. It was great for the fans out there to get it on free TV. It was brought back to free TV where boxing belongs. It was great! It was great theater. There’s no theater like boxing. Nothing. But the decision stunk.”
This isn't the first time Pacquiao has been on the wrong end of a very controversial decision. Pacquiao lost the WBO welterweight title in 2012 to Timothy Bradley, who was also on ESPN's broadcast team for Pacquiao vs. Horn, in a split decision (115-113, 115-113, 113,115) the boxing community also thought was a case of robbery against Pacquiao.
Fightful scored the fight 115-113 for Pacquiao and most pundits within the sport believe that Pacquiao had also won the fight. CompuBox stats saw Pacquiao land 182 of 573 (32 percent) of his total punches, and 123 of 380 (32 percent) of his power punches. Horn, meanwhile, landed a mere 92 of 625 (15 percent) total punches, and 73 of 428 (17 percent) of his power punches.
