But Pacquiao showed his age in fight

Manny Pacquiao is the rightful winner of the "Battle in Brisbane" contrary to the judges' decision that awarded the world welterweight crown to Australia's Jeff Horn, according to fight analyst Ed Tolentino.

Asked for his thoughts on the bout on ANC, Tolentino argued that the scores should have been closer and that Pacquiao should have been given the decision because he was able to pull through in the championship rounds.

The judges saw 117-111, 115-113, 115-113 in favor of Horn, who engaged Pacquiao in a bloody and bruising 12-round fight in front of thousands of fans at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.

“To be honest, Pacquiao went into this fight as an overwhelming favorite, nobody expected the fight to go the distance,” said Tolentino. “But as the action unfolded, we saw Pacquiao showed the wear and tear, the 38 summers. Still I thought he was able to rebound in the final round and was able to defend the title with a decision victory.”

“So I'm just as surprised like everybody with Jeff Horn winning via a decision victory. I thought it should have been closer, I thought Manny did enough to win this fight.”

Horn used his superior size to the hilt, bullying Pacquiao for most part of the fight. But the Filipino had the younger Australian reeling in the 9th when he caught Horn with a massive head shot that nearly signaled the end of the bout.

Horn came fighting back in the 10th round, and the two boxers engaged in an all-out brawl to the fan’s delight.

• READ: Horn pulls off massive upset, stuns Pacquiao

Tolentino gave props to Horn for coming in well-prepared.

“I thought Jeff Horn did not cower with fear, he was not intimidated by Pacquiao, he believe he could actually win. He came out very aggressive, he took the best shots of the Pacman,” he said.

Pacquiao, on the other hand, had a bad start which was further muddled because he was looking for the knockout.

“He was looking for the big shots, he was trying to show that he can take Horn's punches… the fluidity in the combinations of Manny is non existent. He was looking for the one shot,” said Tolentino. “But I thought he was able to take control of the fight in round 9 and he was on his way to a late round stoppage, because Horn almost ran out of gas around that stretch.”

“Unfortunately, the decision still went to Jeff Horn, I thought Manny did enough. It was really a close fight, it could have gone either way but I though Manny did enough.”

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