The big fight down under took place tonight in Brisbane, Australia in front of 55,000 fans. When it was all said and done, Manny Pacquiao and local hero Jeff Horn put on a very entertaining main event for ESPN’s modern era debut in airing big time boxing. The rest of the card certainly had its flaws, and we will get to the decision itself, but Manny Pacquiao’s rallying down the stretch delivered on the highest level of the sport.
Jeff Horn (17-0-1, 11 KOs) fought very respectively over the first eight rounds of the fight against Manny Pacquiao (59-7-2, 38 KOs). Alternating between adrenaline fueled pressure and nice side to side movement, I scored half of the first eight frames to the Australian native. Notable moments before the ninth included last minute of the fifth where Pacquiao was able to play the matador a bit and a big right hand Horn landed that wobbled Pacquiao briefly in the sixth.
In the fifth and the seventh, head clashes opened cuts on the Filipino icon’s forehead. Pacquiao briefly seemed like he was reacting rather poorly to the blood, but did he ever correct that idea with a dominant ninth round in which he battered the Brisbane native around the ring and nearly scored his first stoppage since 2009. In fact, Horn was briefly told by referee Mark Nelson that the fight was going to be stopped before his corner successfully pleaded for one more round.
Pacquiao seemed to have punched himself out in the ninth, however, and Horn was able to recover while doing some good work himself. He wasn’t doing enough to win rounds in the last third of the fight though, or at least he wasn’t on my card as I had Manny sweeping rounds nine through eleven. This included scoring the ninth 10-8. Jeff Horn rallied with great effort in the twelfth, however, and did just enough to edge the round for him in my opinion. This brought my scorecard to 115-112 Manny Pacquiao. Teddy Atlas has it 116-111, but he was also obnoxiously dismissive of Horn all night.
No matter the scoring, Jeff Horn did legitimize himself tonight as a real contender at welterweight. He performed much, much better against his legendary opponent than Jessie Vargas, Brandon Rios, or Timothy Bradley did in their senseless trilogy over the last few years. Pacquiao didn’t look particularly diminished to me either. Jeff Horn just looked like a good fighter.
Unfortunately, scoring matters and this did happen. I have a hard time finding rounds I didn’t already give to Horn that he could have won. I do not agree with the decision, but I also feel more compelled to focus on the quality of the fight than the scorecards. This is boxing. There will be stupid cards. There won’t always be great fights, however, and this is what we had tonight.
Post-fight Jeff Horn gave a token call out to Floyd Mayweather Jr, but both he and Pacquiao acknowledged a rematch clause in the contract. It sounds like we will be doing this once again in Brisbane. Maybe I do not like the reason that we will end up with a rematch, but I am happy to watch this fight again nonetheless.
As for ESPN broadcasting a big fight, it was not good overall. I have no issue with Joe Tessitore, but Teddy Atlas is infuriating to listen to in commentary. Even though he was correct that Pacquiao should have won the decision, he refused to give credit to Horn all night and repeated himself constantly. Worse yet was the entirely unnecessary studio presence of Stephen A Smith. The man knows nothing of the sport, a fact that he himself acknowledged multiple times through the broadcast.
The real issue, however, was the pacing. The card just dragged and dragged. Hopefully this can be improved for their next pair of big Top Rank shows.
In the co-main event, Jerwin Ancajas (27-1-1, 18 KOs) successfully defended his IBF super flyweight title against Teiru Kinoshita (25-2, 8 KOs). Though the fight was stopped after Kinoshita rose from a vicious seventh round body shot knockdown, the stoppage was more due to the Japanese fighter’s eye than the body shot. In the first couple rounds Kinoshita’s eye was already badly damaged, by the fifth it was completely closed, and by the seventh it was hopeless. It was a good stoppage and a solid performance from Ancajas in what is now improbably somewhat of a money division.
Michael Conlan (3-0, 3 KOs) predictably won his non-contest via third round TKO over Australian club fighter Jarrett Owens (5-5-3, 2 KOs) in the ESPN broadcast’s second fight. This was Conlan’s third fight against someone like this and, at least by my eyes, the third time he failed to really look good. Stylistically it seems like he will make for exciting fights, but he needs someone who can fight back to do it. I do not believe Top Rank is doing his star much of a favor by televising a fight like this on a major card. It is perfectly normal to build a fighter on this sort of fight, but much less normal to air the fights on significant broadcasts.
Opening the broadcast, Australian David Toussaint (11-0, 8 KOs) outpointed Shane Mosley Jr (10-2, 7 KOs) over eight rounds. Though it wasn’t a complete and total outclassing, Toussaint was just fundamentally better in every facet of the game. Mosley Jr is game, but he is far from what his father was in the ring. This was an a good name on a great platform for Toussaint and it really should elevate his career overnight.
Off-TV, 2012 Australian Olympian Damien Hooper (13-1, 8 KOs) upset rising super middleweight prospect Umar Salamov (19-1, 14 KOs) to the tune of three identical scores of 96-94. Despite his unexpected early career upset knockout loss, Hooper remains a talented prospect, but this is still an upset over a much bigger prospect. Hopefully I can find a video of this bout tomorrow to rule out a hometown decision.
