Manny Pacquiao is currently a boxing legend and has been for some time now, however an former referee by the name of Carlos Padilla has came out and stated that he cheated in 2000.
Padilla, who is now 88, said that when Pacquiao was defending his title against Nedal Hussein, he prolonged his count to help him recover and win the fight.
There was also a headbutt by Pacquiao that Padilla overlooked as this could have ended the fight due to him cutting his left eye due to this.
Pacquiao won via TKO and went on to become a five-weight world champion.
Image Credit: FARYSA HAMZAH
“Manny is not a (super-bantamweight) world champion yet. He was only a god in the Philippines,” said Padilla.
“They told me ‘Carlos, please, this is an important fight for Manny because the winner will have a chance to fight for the world championship’.”
Padilla said he stepped in after Pacquiao was knocked down in the fourth round.
“I am a Filipino and everybody is a Filipino watching the fight,” Padilla said. “So I prolong the count. I know how to do it. When he gets up I say to him ‘Hey, are you OK?’, which is prolonging the fight.”
The WBC has now stated that they will look into this and do some further investigation into this which could result in something happening to Pacquaio.
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman told BBC Sport: “The WBC has appointed a committee to look into this matter and we will be working on this situation with full attention.”
Banner and image Credit: FARYSA HAMZAH
