I had completely planned to write about something else this week, but then Saturday happened. Manny Pacquiao lost a controversial decision to say the least to Jeff Horn in Horn’s hometown of Brisbane, Australia. The result produced much negative backlash from people across social media. In particular Teddy Atlas, the color commentator for ESPN of this fight. What is so disappointing about this decision is not the fact that a man who only landed 15 percent of his punches won the fight but the dark mark it puts on the sport of boxing on a night where it had such great opportunity.
One of the reasons boxing has failed to grab a casual audience following in recent years is due to its lack of presence on free and general television. While Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions have been one of the few efforts to change that, it has only produced mixed results. Audiences on Saturday would get the chance to see a legendary, notable, hall of fame fighter without having to buy Pay-Per-View, something that is just rare to get.
The erroneous judge decisions not only hurt this event but hurt the future of boxing. Not only do the fighters get cheated, but one could argue fans get cheated as its likely judges would cause controversial decisions to set up rematches that fans would have to pay for.
There lies something the sport of boxing must be very careful with. Talking a big game but not giving a satisfying result. Ultimately, several of its big fights in recent years have been either controversial or non-competitive, the biggest example being that of Mayweather vs Pacquiao back in 2015 which even asked fans to pay 100 dollars for that fight on PPV.
It’s very likely fans will see the same result in the upcoming Mayweather- Mcgregor fight, no doubt the biggest fight in boxing this year but one that will be so hyped that if it doesn’t deliver in some competitive form it could leave many fans, especially casuals, feeling cheated.
It’s like eating a cake for desert that looks amazing on the outside but does not nearly match the quality of taste on the inside.
While the superfight in September between Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez is expected to be the most action packed fight of the year, one can only imagine the damage it could do to the sport if that fight has any sort of controversy.
Will Jeff Horn’s victory be a sign of things to come for the rest of the crucial fights in boxing this year? Only time will tell. But for the sake of the sport, let’s hope this trend stops.
