Referee Admits to Rigging Fight For Pacquiao in Bizarre Interview

Didn't see a thread about this - WBC posted this interview on their Youtube channel, then deleted it. Referee Carlos Padilla has admitted he gave Manny Pacquiao 18 seconds to get up after being dropped in a hometown fight. Before his days as a multiple-weight world champion, Pacquiao was an up-and-comer and was matched with Australian Nedal Hussein for a super-bantamweight title. And in the fourth round of their contest in the Philippines, Hussein put Pacquiao down with a big shot, forcing a ten-count from referee Padilla. However, the Filipino referee allowed Pacquiao as long as 18 seconds to get up after being dazed, and let the contest continue despite Hussein's protests. And over two decades later, the referee has admitted that he gave a long count after being told that it was an important bout for Pacquiao to win, as well as making other moves that hindered Hussein's ability to win. "Manny was not a world champion yet, he was only good in the Philippines,' Padilla said in a recent interview with the WBC's YouTube channel, which has now been made private. "That fight, I'm about to go and leave the following day and they told me 'Carlos, please - this is an important fight for Pacquiao, because the winner will have the chance to fight for the world championship'. “So, you know the opponent, Hussein, or whatever his name was. He is taller, younger, stronger, and a dirty fighter, managed by Jeff Fenech. So in the seventh round, I think , Manny got knocked down, I thought he was going to get up, but his eyes were cross-eyed. "I am Filipino, and everybody watching the fight is Filipino, so I prolonged the count. I know how to do it. When he got up, I told him, ‘Hey, are you okay?’ Still prolonging the fight. ‘Are you okay?’ ‘Okay, fight!’ and then Hussein……because Manny was not like Manny is now, he wasn’t trained by Freddie Roach yet, he holds on for his dear life, and the guy throws him, and he went down again. I said to the opponent, ‘Hey, you don’t do this.’ You know, I was prolonging the fight. ‘You don’t do that. Okay, judges, deduction'." The bizarre interview saw Padilla laugh about declaring a cut from a headbutt as having come from a punch, which eventually saw the fight stopped in round 10, and Pacquiao being declared the winner. Hussein hit back at Padilla's story, posting on his Instagram story that "This putrid dog admitted to cheating me." "Manny is still groaning and then 'get up, are you OK?' And then because he is shorter he headbutted the other guy and there is a cut but I declared it a punch. If there is a headbutt you have to stop the fight and declare to the judges a point deduction, but I didn't do that, meaning the fight could continue. is not really big - but I never got the doctor to check it I want to see it serious." And he wasn't confident that Pacquiao would win on the scorecards even after his point deduction, telling his countryman that he had better land a stoppage. "I said 'better knock that guy out Manny, because we may be in trouble'," Padilla added. "The guy was strong." Padilla eventually had the doctor look at the cut and waved the fight off, handing Pacquiao a victory and setting him on a path to gold in multiple weight classes. Meanwhile, Hussein was never able to get his hands on a world title despite getting two opportunities. He ended up becoming a salesman in Australia, while Pacquiao is a multi-millionaire and political figure in his home country. https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/boxing/manny-pacquiao-boxing-referee-cheating-28600268 https://www.worldboxingnews.net/2022/11/27/ref-cheats-manny-pacquiao-twice/

Comments (20)

This shyt is an obvious hit piece... Probably tried to racket Manny out some money as if people care of that portion of Manny career

3y ago

hectari

He's obviously not taking credit for a successful careeer, are you on drugs? I know loads of Italians too, never seen any of them take credit for being in the mob either. It's pretty well known that you don't talk about it if you're in it. Bro Im Italian Also when did I say he is taking credit for his career, im saying he is telling a story about a pivotal moment which in turn a way to say if it wasnt for me fixing the fight Pacquiqao wouldn't have gotten his big break, why else would he boast about fixing the fight with Hussein? Why are you arguing over this?

3y ago

Dubblechin

get out a stopwatch, or use your computer clock, and time it - Fury was up before 10 seconds He was up, and that's when the ref should've waved Wilder in. Not another eight to 10 seconds later. If he's up and he can go, restart the fight. The referee used to determine if a fighter could continue as he was counting. Now they spend more time asking them to "walk over there, now walk back to me, are you okay? are you sure you want to continue? where are you at?" than the guy spent on the floor. It's laughable. A guy goes down, you start the count, if he gets up, you either stop it or wipe the gloves and wave them together to continue fighting. Like I said, in the last minute of the fourth round of Fury-Wilder III, 40+ seconds were spent with the referee either counting or asking Fury questions. And in the other 18 seconds, Wilder actually dropped him twice from punches. Maybe spend less time asking questions. It's a fight. Not a quiz show. If the guy can fight, let them fight. If he can't, stop it.

3y ago

buge

Exactly. get out a stopwatch, or use your computer clock, and time it - Fury was up before 10 seconds

3y ago

paulf

Arum was definitely working to feed Manny to Mike Jones. Jones lost, so Bradley got the pony. And we saw what happened. An aside - my favorite moment from that era was when Arum signed a completely washed Kermit Cintron and told the press Pacquiao was probably fighting Cintron next. The backlash was terrible, and when Cintron looked like complete shit in his tuneup on FNF, Arum had to be like "I guess I'm not gonna get away with this" and immediately dropped Kermit.

3y ago

paulf

According to Bailey, he was on the phone when his people reached out to Arum to get the Pacquiao fight - and Arum wasn't having it. https://hannibalboxing.com/real-one-...ived-fighting/ Now, the only part of that I disagree with is discrediting Alexander. Devon was in his absolute prime and he became the IBF champion. That fight was for that belt (vacant). But there was no chance in hell that Bailey at that time was beating that version of Alexander. Bailey wanted the big payday and I don't blame him given who he beat, but let's be honest: if he had beaten Devon Alexander, there's no way promoters would ignore that. It would have completely changed history from what we got. Yeah while I think everything they're saying is true - Bailey is kind of angling it to be a little more salacious than it was. Bradley beat Pac that night too - then Pac fought Marquez and Bradley fought Provodnikov - winner of those two fights fought each other. If Bailey had got the shot against Bradley to unify the titles, he probably wouldn't have made any more money than he did to fight Alexander. No where was it written Pacquiao was planning to fight Jones if he lost to Bradley. And Alexander wasn't a mandatory - Bailey didn't have to take that fight. He took it because everyone on his team knew that punch on Jones was a miracle - Bailey was 37 and likely to lose to the next decent fighter he fought. He's sour he didn't get to cash out by being KO'd in two rounds by Pacquiao for more money.

3y ago

QueensburyRules

Let's look at it this way. Randall Bailey. 2012 he's matched up with Mike Jones, who was being pushed as THE GUY. Bailey had power, but had losses. Same style match up as here. The fight was for vacant titles, but Arum booked it to where only Jones could win them, and Bailey didn't outright admit but basically said that everyone expected him to lose. More importantly, Arum planned to book Jones, if he won, against then-rising star Pacquiao. Bailey initially gets outworked but catches Jones late and gets a major upset stoppage. Bailey asks for the Pacquiao shot that Jones would have gotten, Arum ghosts him. That's exactly what Hussain would have been dealing with: shady promoter blocking success and still backing his guy. And worse, Jones and Bailey both would completely disappear from the business shortly after. I tried to track Jones down for the podcast and he's completely off the radar. Remember, it took two robberies for Marquez to finally get his closures. - - Remember it only took one robbery for BALCO Juan and Memo to finally rack up a win so they could ducked the lucrative World Wide Rematch in a Mexico City Bullring for a BALCO Juan career purse. Mexicans love Manny, JCChavez, and Canelo but never took tepid Juan who used to train on his pissoir spritzers daily...Bad Breath!!!

3y ago

paulf

uh makes zero sense? The guy was ****ing smirking during the interview almost to BRAG if it wasnt for me Pacquiao wouldnt have got that title shot agianst Ledwaba. Dude is boasting look at the interview its as if he is taking credit for giving a long count and getting the ref to stop it, it makes perfect sense for a narcissistic individual. If it wasn't for him, Pacquiao WOULDN'T have got the shot against Ledwaba. That's the point here.

3y ago

hectari

Thats makes zero sense. uh makes zero sense? The guy was fukking smirking during the interview almost to BRAG if it wasnt for me Pacquiao wouldnt have got that title shot agianst Ledwaba. Dude is boasting look at the interview its as if he is taking credit for giving a long count and getting the ref to stop it, it makes perfect sense for a narcissistic individual.

3y ago

paulf

More importantly, Arum planned to book Jones, if he won, against then-rising star Pacquiao. Bailey initially gets outworked but catches Jones late and gets a major upset stoppage. Bailey asks for the Pacquiao shot that Jones would have gotten, Arum ghosts him. Oh that's interesting - I didn't know Bailey's team actually tried to make that fight. Arum wasn't gonna co-promote with Lou or anyone else at that point. He was keeping all the money and throwing Pacquiao peanuts.

3y ago

hectari

Carlos Padilla trying to take credit for Pacs rise, seems like a narcissistic story telling, like those old Italian guys who tell tall tales as if they were part of the mob when they never were. A lot of this stuff goes on, Padilla is just the only one dumb enough or braggadocios to admit to it not realizing he just soiled his legacy as a legendary ref. If Panama Lewis a known cheat never admit to the dirt he did. In the NBA they had refs shaving points and helping teams win calling fouls or not calling penalties and that is the NBA a major league televised everywhere and watched by millions. Corruption is no joke in sports. Ill say this though, Carlos Padilla was considered the Top Ref for you guys who are young and dont know much of boxing history, Padilla was considered the best ref at the time, he handled many big fights like Duran vs Hearns, Ali vs Frazier in Manilla. WBC doesnt even realize they put up an interview that hurts boxing as a whole and further makes people feel negative toward the sport.

3y ago

Willie_Pep_229

Let's look at it this way. Randall Bailey. 2012 he's matched up with Mike Jones, who was being pushed as THE GUY. Bailey had power, but had losses. Same style match up as here. The fight was for vacant titles, but Arum booked it to where only Jones could win them, and Bailey didn't outright admit but basically said that everyone expected him to lose. More importantly, Arum planned to book Jones, if he won, against then-rising star Pacquiao. Bailey initially gets outworked but catches Jones late and gets a major upset stoppage. Bailey asks for the Pacquiao shot that Jones would have gotten, Arum ghosts him. That's exactly what Hussain would have been dealing with: shady promoter blocking success and still backing his guy. And worse, Jones and Bailey both would completely disappear from the business shortly after. I tried to track Jones down for the podcast and he's completely off the radar. Remember, it took two robberies for Marquez to finally get his closures. Wait . . . You realize my post was a parody of Marlon Brando from On the Waterfront. My point being that even though you felt he could never have won the title at least he would have gotten a shot at it. "He could have been a contender." --> That would have been enough to make his career worth having --> so in a sense he still got jobbed out of his shot even if he couldn't have won the title.

3y ago

Willie_Pep_229

And like I said, it wouldn't have mattered. He would have lost the title fight and been just as much a journeyman as he ended up being. Yea but he could've been somebody, he could've been a contender. Now, let's face it, he's a bum.

3y ago

Lupara

And like I said, it wouldn't have mattered. He would have lost the title fight and been just as much a journeyman as he ended up being. Hmm We don't know that for sure, and regardless, what the ref did is some low down dirty $h!t

3y ago

ShoulderRoll

It really would not have. The guy was terrible and caught the worst version of Manny Pacquiao. There was no Roach back then, Manny was all offense and very little defense. Look at the shot that caught him, it was like a fast pump jab and it had him cross-eyed. Hussein was bigger and stronger. That's all. But that only applied to the lower tier of the time. The only time he stepped up (Larios) he got schooled. The winner was going to get a title shot.

3y ago

Dubblechin

Include the time the ref was asking Manny if he was okay. Don't know why people are ignoring the link I shared, it has perfect splicing of what he's saying. When Manny got dropped to the time the referee restarted the action, like 18 or 19 seconds passed. Same thing happened in Wilder-Fury I, and the people who pointed it out were bashed on social media and were hammered with "it's a 10-count not 10 seconds." Like Padilla said, the referees know what they're doing when they want to give a fighter more time. He plainly said what they do. The ref in the first Wilder-Fury fight followed those instructions to perfection. When Fury got up, the ref said "walk over here, walk over there" ... and they say they do that to see if the fighter can continue, but the fighter is supposed to be ready to go when the ref finishes his count and the fighter is on his feet. The referee isn't supposed to give the guy "another" 10 seconds to "prove" he can continue. If you do that, you're giving them 20 seconds to recover. (As Carlos admitted, they 'know' this.) If he can't continue when he gets up, then the fight is supposed to be over. If the ref isn't sure, then restart the action and see if the fighter scoring the knockdown can finish him off. This walking around and asking questions for an additional eight or nine seconds is an official trying to impact the outcome of a fight ... as Carlos admitted. Hell, when Wilder dropped Fury in the third fight, the referee waited 20 seconds from the time Fury went down until he resumed the action after the first knockdown, and 21 seconds after Fury went down a second time and the referee told them to fight. Wilder dropped Fury with a full minute left in round 4. But they were only cleared to fight for like 20 seconds in the final minute of that fourth round. The rest of the time the referee was counting or asking Fury questions. At that rate, the Foreman-Frazier fight would've gone the full 15. (I'm being sarcastic). Just count, and if they get up, stop it or call the other boxer in and get the hell out of the way. Enough of this walk over here, walk over there, answer 20 questions bull.

3y ago

HandsofIron

Wow, didn't know that, very interesting...

3y ago

Dubblechin

Same schit Jack Reiss did in Fury-Wilder 1 Instead Reiss gave him about 20 seconds to recover. Even kneeled down and yelled in his face to wake him up Exactly.

3y ago

buddyr

When is Richard Steele going to admit fixing fights for Don King fighters Chavez vs Taylor Tyson vs Ruddock 1 Keith Holmes vs Quincy Taylor (you can't even find this on youtube. If you've saw it in the 90s, you know what I'm talking about)

3y ago

Willie_Pep_229

For Christ's sake the word 'self-agrandize' has the word f a g mixed in the middle of it so the computer censored it.

3y ago