Manny Pacquiao’s Welterweight world title reign came to an end in controversial fashion, but allowed Terence Crawford to begin his career at 147lb in style.
After losing the WBO Welterweight title to Floyd Mayweather in 2015, Manny Pacquiao regained the belt by beating Jessie Vargas in Las Vegas a year later.
Vargas won the belt after Mayweather decided to vacate it following his $600 million win, which set up a clash between Vargas and “Pac-Man” in November 2016.
The victory marked an impressive performance for Pacquiao, but his title run would soon end in controversial fashion against an opponent the eight-weight champion was sure he beat on the night.
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Manny Pacquiao labeled his controversial loss to Jeff Horn ‘unfair’ after the fight
One of the most controversial defeats in Pacquiao’s career came a year after the Mayweather loss, with his former foe at ringside to see him shockingly lose to Jeff Horn.
While he no longer possessed the power he once boasted, Pacquiao still outpunched his Australian opponent in their WBO title clash.
The Filipino landed more punches in eleven of the twelve rounds against Horn, landing 182 punches to Horn’s 92, despite throwing over 50 fewer throughout the course of the fight.
The Australian also didn’t have the cleanest fight, with a series of elbows and headbutts cutting Pacquiao during the course of the fight, which went without punishment from the referee.
Horn seemed to control the early rounds but struggled to land any substantial hits, while Pacquiao failed to knock him out in the final minutes despite going in for the kill.
When the judges awarded Horn the unanimous decision victory, everyone was shocked. Pacquiao was the most upset, calling the loss “unfair” and demanding a review by the WBO.
He said: “I love boxing and I don’t wanna see it dying because of unfair decisions and officiating.”
Unfortunately, the WBO reviewed the fight and upheld the decision. This was a big blow to Pac-Man, but he would have felt better seeing what Terence Crawford did to Horn just eleven months later.
Terence Crawford knocked out Jeff Horn less than a year after the Manny Pacquiao controversy
Horn defended the WBO Welterweight title against Gary Corcoran in December 2017, before Crawford made the step up to Welterweight to battle the world champion in Las Vegas.
Having won titles at Lightweight and Light Welterweight, Crawford certainly had the ability to go all the way and win this bout; the only question was whether it was too much of a step-up, weight-wise.
He quickly dispelled any notion of it being an issue. He dominated Horn throughout the fight, barely getting hit at all as the Australian landed just 22.6% of his punches.
Crawford landed a series of power punches to rattle Horn before finally ending the bout in the ninth round.
Despite having a big size disadvantage, Crawford knocked his opponent down midway through the round, before a flurry of punches forced the referee to step in to protect Horn and hand Crawford the third of his four world titles at different weight classes.
Horn may have controversially beaten Pacquiao, but he could do nothing to stop the undefeated Crawford on his way to greatness.