Sports

Ref admits he cheated to help Pacquiao win


It has long been an open secret – fans joked about the apparent long number after the 2000 battle.

And in the years that followed, the joke lost its power, flattened by its retelling frequency and the incomparable career of a Manny Pacquiao.

Until the World Boxing Council (WBC) uploaded a video featuring famous Filipino referee Carlos Padilla admitting he facilitated a rigged result in Pacquiao’s infamous match against Australia’s Nadal Hussein. .

“So you know the opponent, Hussein, or whatever his name is. He’s taller, younger, stronger, and a dirty boxer, managed by Jeff Fenech. So in [fourth round]Manny was knocked down, I thought he was going to get up but his eyes were crossed,” Padilla said in a video on WBC’s YouTube channel that has since been taken down.

“I am Filipino, and everyone watching the match is Filipino, so I extended the count. I know how to do it,” said Padilla after it took almost twice as long to count to 10. “When he got up, I said to him, ‘Hey, are you okay?’ Still protracted the struggle. ‘Are you ok?’ ‘Okay, fight!’”

headbutt, punch

“[B]because Manny wasn’t like Manny now, he hadn’t been coached by Freddie Roach, he kept his dear life, and [Hussein] throw him, and he goes down again. I say to the opponent, ‘Hey, you don’t do this.’ You know, I prolonged the war. ‘You don’t do that. All right, judge, [point] deduct.'”

To that end, Padilla also admitted to forcing results as he considered a punch to the head a punch, leading to a 10-round TKO win for Pacquiao.

“[B]Since he was shorter he headbutted the other and got a cut, but I claim it was a punch. If there is a headbutt you have to stop the game and declare the deduction to the judges, but I didn’t do that, which means the game can go on. [The cut] not really big—but I’ve never been examined by a doctor [because] I want to see it taken seriously,” said Padilla.

Pacquiao could not be reached for comment.

However, Hussein had a lot to say, especially about how different the paths of both boxers were after that bout.

“I can’t say Pacquiao’s career will never be the same, but it will be derailed, that’s for sure,” Hussein said.

After that, the Australian tennis player did not have much of a career when he did not win the world championship. He eventually settled into a career in sales.

Meanwhile, Pacquiao’s career blossomed the following year when he was selected as a replacement boxer two weeks after it was announced to face Lehlo Ledwaba in the base schedule at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas featuring by Oscar de la Hoya in the main event. Pacquiao made a sixth round stoppage time in the International Boxing Federation youth featherweight bout to design one of the greatest fights in boxing history.

Eight weight classes

The former Philippine senator won titles in eight different weight classes, an unprecedented feat to this day.

Hussein said his camp smelled fishy early on and accused the organizers of using a loophole to put Padilla in the position of referee.

“With arbitration, the terms are that there will be an Australian referee, a Filipino referee and a Korean referee. Then they said that the referee would be American. But … [Padilla] is a Filipino-American. So because he’s an American citizen, they’ve got their loopholes.

“He’s been Filipino for a long time. But it’s not a problem because he lives in America. But honestly, we didn’t know anything about it until the last minute.”

US-based Padilla was the third man in the ring in “Thrilla in Manila” which featured Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in 1975.

“They have to take responsibility for the sport we love,” Hussein later wrote in a post.

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