Horn beats Pacquiao via unanimous decision

Jul 7, 2017
2 min read

Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao lost his WBO World Welterweight title to Jeff Horn via unanimous decision in the “Battle of Brisbane” at Suncorp Stadium in Australia last Sunday, July 2.

The Sunday bout was bloody but it ended up in a unanimous decision with 117-111, 115-113, and 115-113 in the judges’ scorecards. Pacquiao, 38, suffered two head cuts on the left through a head-butt in the sixth round and one on the right by a punch in the seventh round.

But the 11-time world champion outpunched Horn, 29, according to CompuBox statistics by landing 182 against the 92 punches of Horn. Pacquiao’s fighting record was now 56-7-2 with 38 knockouts while 17-0-1 with 11 knockouts was Horn’s record.

Even though Horn was not the hot favorite to win, “That was just my heart that kept me going,” he said.

Pacquiao graciously accepted his defeat saying: “That’s the decision of the judges, I respect that.” But when asked in a ringside interview about a possible rematch, Pacquiao replied: “Rematch, that’s fine. Absolutely, I’d love that.”

While the new WBO World Welterweight title holder thanked the 51, 052 people who witnessed his biggest battle in the ring so far. “Amazing, that’s how I feel. I felt lucky, throwing a lot of punches and throwing him (Pacquiao) off rhythm,” Horn said.

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said he will give Pacquiao and his team time to think about a rematch. He said: “I know Jeff would welcome the rematch, but I don’t know Manny’s future position. Is he going to stay in politics and not continue in boxing? I don’t know, and he doesn’t know now — it’s unfair to ask him now.”