Never mind that one judge spoiled Manny Pacquiao’s Sunday win in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Pacquiao’s triumph over Keith Thurman, 30, was as clear as man’s moon landing in 1969.
The fight was close. I give credit to Thurman’s youthful energy, enabling him to weather Pacquiao’s firepower—or what’s left of it.
Considered old at 40, Pacquiao’s win was something akin to David slaying Goliath.
It even made Pacquiao the third oldest fighter to win a world crown. And hasn’t he already won eight unprecedented division world titles?
George Foreman was the first 40-plus world champion when, at age 45 in 1994, he knocked out Michael Moorer to retake the world heavyweight title he lost 20 years earlier to Muhammad Ali in Kinshasha, Zaire, in 1974.
And then in 2011, Bernard Hopkins eclipsed Foreman’s age advantage by six months when, at age 46, Hopkins outpointed Jean Pascal of Canada to win both the WBC and IBO light heavyweight crowns in Montreal.
And now Pacquiao, unifying the WBA world welterweight crown, is one of the “oldies but goldies” in boxing.
While Glenn Feldman gave the 12-round fight to Thurman by a narrow 114-113 score, his fellow judges Dave Moretti and Tim Cheatham saw Pacquiao the winner with identical 115-112 scores.
Mine was 116-111 for Pacquiao.
Humbly, my scores bore striking similarities to the tallies of Moretti and Cheatham.
Moretti and I saw the last six rounds even. We gave Rounds 8, 10 and 12 to Pacquiao.
And from Rounds 1-to-6, Cheatham and I handed Pacquiao a massive 5-1 edge—giving the sixth to Thurman.
Moretti, Cheatham and I split the last two rounds. But Feldman saw Thurman winning Rounds 11 and 12. Ouch!
With that, Feldman gave himself away, his reputation as a judge with an unsullied integrity reduced to rubbish.
I submit that Pacquiao started hot, slowed down afterwards and survived on sheer instinct.
Father Time authored Pacquiao’s fading away, punctuated by his inability to finish off a visibly defenseless Thurman in the 10th.
Alas, he won’t admit it—like most of his fellow greats before him. Scary.