7 Things We Learned from Jeff Horn’s Controversial Win over Manny Pacquiao

1) Stephen A. Smith knows nothing about boxing- Smith, when rattling off Horn’s previous victims, had no clue who Ali Funeka was. Funeka, while over the hill when he faced Horn, in his prime was a top ten fighter who gave a good account of himself in world title fights. Smith, of course, had no idea who he was. Since that’s the case, why was he even on the show? Smith’s constant screaming and ranting took away from a good night for fight fans. Smith needs to stick to First Take and leave the real shows to the actual experts. I would rather see John”Iceman” Scully or Steve Cunningham on air then Smith.

2) Jeff Horn imposed his will on Manny- Whether you thought Horn won or lost the key to his success was his ability to impose his physical strength on Pacquiao from the start of the fight until the end of the fight. Horn made Pacquiao uncomfortable all night.

3) Compubox has and always will be a joke- No way Horn landed on average less than ten punches around. Fights have always been best judged the day after the fight when the viewer is poised to watch objectively and not get caught up in the hype. The hype, meaning everything from the crowd’s jeers, the commentators’ biases, the sound of punches landing on the gloves, to the noises that the boxers make, does not escape anyone. Even judges have to guess that a punch landed flush when a fighter’s back is turned to them. Not to mention, in order to score rounds—in one aspect—judges have to rule whether a fighter did more damage than the other fighter. Compubox, like Punchstat numbers or any of the popular statistic coverage on major fight networks, perpetuates these flaws of scoring fights because people, not computers, are pressing buttons and tallying punches during the action of the fight.

4) The Fight was controversial not a robbery- Now when I rewatch the fight tomorrow maybe I will change my mind. But what I saw tonight was a close fight that could have gone either way. Horn was the aggressor, and while he was not always effective with his aggression, he did make Pacquiao fight the fight he wanted him to.

5) Waleska Roldan should never judge another fight ever again- After his 117-111 verdict, if there is a fight in his living room he shouldn’t be allowed to judge it! When I heard the 117-111 score I thought for sure Pac-Man was getting the decision. There is no way even the biggest Jeff Horn fan would have had him winning by six points!

6) This was a good night for boxing- Horn-Pacquiao as a fight far exceeded expectations, and stop before you tell me it wasn’t a good night because of the decision. Questionable officiating in every sport has been around since the beginning of time. If you don’t believe me go watch Super Bowl 40 again or game 6 of the 1985 World Series. Human error will always be involved in sports, but once again, outside of 117-111, I don’t believe a human error was a problem tonight.

7) Teddy Atlas is annoying- If you watched the fight I shouldn’t even have to explain this statement.

Conclusion- What we saw tonight was a relatively unknown former school teacher with just 17 fights under his belt fight in front of 50,000 of his countrymen in a bout nobody outside of his immediate family thought he could win. Jeff Horn rose to the occasion! He brought the fight to a legend and he imposed his will on him. On the other side, we had an absolute boxing legend at the age of 38 bleeding from multiple cuts in a foreign land come back and fight his heart out. How many 38-year-old millionaires would do that?

Another thing that irritates me is I see a lot of fans saying that Horn can’t beat any of the other top welterweights and while that may be true, I think people are missing the point here. The point is this: we see all kinds of fights where guys play it safe or just try to go the distance. Fights like Canelo and Chavez a couple of months ago seem to happen at a more alarming rate than they ever have. Tonight we saw two men willing to go toe to toe for twelve rounds and neither backed down. To me that’s rare in this day and age.