Atlas stands firm on Pacquiao beating Horn, backs Crawford to take title with stoppage
Chris Farina
Teddy Atlas wasn’t alone in stating a robbery took place last summer when unheralded Aussie Jeff Horn became the WBO welterweight champion in Brisbane.
Horn was seemingly battered and beaten for at least seven or eight rounds of the fight by Manny Pacquiao, only to have his hand raised in glory to the delight of the crowd.
Rather than seeking a rematch, Pacquiao moved on to allow Terence Crawford the opportunity to add another weight class world title to his impressive C.V
Months on, and Atlas continues with his view that Horn was lucky as ‘The Hornet’ prepares to put his belt on the line for a second time this weekend.
“I’ve been in this game for 40 years and I hope the fans can appreciate what I say is not attached to any agendas and not influenced by anything other than my life and experience in this game,” Atlas told foxsports.au.
“That doesn’t mean I’m right … but have a responsibility to tell the people watching what I believe they should be told. And if that means that somebody got robbed, that’s what I’m supposed to tell them.
“Even though it’s not fashionable. Even though it’s not popular. Even though the people that hired me, it might not stand well with them.
“I shouldn’t be influenced because I have 50,000 Aussies around me as I’m saying what I’m saying. I shouldn’t be influenced by anything other than what I believe to be the truth.
“I didn’t take anything away from him. He won the title,” Atlas said.
“And saying it with him in the ring … wouldn’t it have been more impolite or incorrect if I stood there after 45 minutes of a broadcast saying that he I thought he lost the fight … and then saying ‘you were great congratulations champ?”
Asked his thoughts on Horn taking on Crawford, Atlas added: “I think Horn’s going to get knocked out in about six rounds.
“The only reason he’s going to have a chance to stretch the fight out at all is that Crawford is dealing with the most amount of inactivity in his career — 10 months.
“That’s probably going to affect him a little bit, at least early on.”
Concluding with Horn’s only possible chance of victory, Atlas believes the current title holder may need to rough up the classy American.
“Horn does go in there with his head, he comes with reckless abandon sometimes (and) all kinds of things can happen in boxing.
“Other than that, man-to-man with everything else being equal, I would be surprised if Horn survives the whole fight,” he added.