Pacman blames erring officials for ‘ring robbery’

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines – The day after the fight, billed by many as the “Robbery in Brisbane,” dethroned champion Manny Pacquiao can’t help but blame fight officials for his stunning defeat to Australian underdog Jeff Horn.

He said the officials erred in working the fight.

“I feel I was set up,” said Pacquiao as he looked back to his bloody 12-round clash with Horn, an unbeaten 29-year-old who was declared winner of a unanimous decision last Sunday at the packed Suncorp Stadium.

“Na-set up tayo,” he told reporters in an impromptu press conference staged at the tail-end section of the Air Asia jumbo jet that flew him out of Queensland Monday morning.

Pacquiao, with a bruised face and cuts on both sides of the head that needed 17 stitches to close, shook his head but did not elaborate. 

With cameras and recorders close to his face, he refused to comment when asked by an investigative TV reporter if the loss had anything to do with his soon-to-expire promotional contract with Top Rank.

“Let’s not think about that,” he said.

Inside the ring after the fight, Pacquiao said he was accepting the judges’ decision, with all three scorecards favoring Horn.

Overnight, however, it must have sunk into him that he did what was needed for him to win the fight by landing more punches, the harder and clearer ones.

Pacquiao couldn’t understand how and why the three judges, from New York, Arizona and Argentina, awarded the fight to Horn, one of them scoring the fight at 117-111.

“It was horrible,” said Pacquiao of the judging.