When Pacquiao Cheated

“While Manny Pacquiao is now called the best boxer in the world, he has not always dominated his opponents, including some that were evidently inferior. On October 14, 2000, Pacquiao took on Nedal Hussein in a half-filled Ynares Sports Center in Antipolo City, the Philippines. Filipinos were hardly gracious hosts to Hussein, who is known as Skinny. Maybe they were worried. Before the fight, Skinny’s record read 19–0 (11 KOs) to Pacquiao’s 29–2 (20 KOs).
Skinny was put up three hours away from the venue in a one-star hotel. “Wasn’t pleasant, that was for sure,” says Hussein, an Australian. “But if you can’t handle the challenge, you shouldn’t be a boxer.”
In the first four rounds, Hussein dominated Pacquiao. Then Pacquiao started outboxing Hussein. “He had a reputation as a bit of a gambler, and someone who drank more than he should have, but he had stamina,” Hussein told me between selling used cars at Knockout Autos in Sydney. In the fourth round, Pacquiao walked into an ordinary jab and fell to his knees. The count went to eighteen seconds. Pacquiao, brain throbbing, was visibly hurt, gasping for oxygen and equilibrium. The crowd was silent, arms crossed. As Skinny went in for the kill, Pacquiao desperately held on. Hussein couldn’t get Pacquiao off him and tried to muscle him away. He accidentally elbowed him. “Just trying to push him off, to be honest,” says Skinny. Carlos Padilla Jr., a Filipino referee who had worked the “Thrilla in Manila,” deducted one point. After the long count and the iffy deduction, Hussein was rightly livid. He nodded fatefully as if to say, “This is sorta fucked up.” Pacquiao was tired. The hometown announcers were calling Hussein a dirty fighter, but it was Pacquiao who was wrapping his elbow around the Aussie’s neck, trying not to fall down. As the fight wore on, Pacquaio, clad in black trunks, recovered well and started outboxing his opponent. In round seven, Hussein, now the exhausted boxer, bull-rushed Pacquiao and knocked him down.
Between the ninth and tenth rounds, the fans threw bottles into the ring. In round ten, Skinny had a cut, not too serious, on his cheek, and Padilla stopped the fight. It was a premature stoppage. “I felt cheated by the referee,” says Hussein. “As long as the fighters keep fighting, let them fight.” (Hussein made $8,000 for his controversial loss, while Pacquiao soared to fame and fortune. Hussein still feels robbed but expresses no bitterness toward Pacquiao, who he says has developed into an even “better offensive fighter, he is smarter, and more disciplined and dedicated.”)
At the end of the controversial fight, Pacquiao seemed more relieved than giddy. He was still a world champion, but barely. He hadn’t even gone against the true class in his division, which were Mexicans and Americans.”

Excerpt From
PacMan
by Gary Poole