The World Boxing Council have confirmed that they are launching a review of the 2000 bout between Manny Pacquiao and Nedal Hussein after the referee on the night admitted to cheating.
Carlos Padilla took charge of the fight between Pacquiao and Hussein, which saw the pair contest for the WBC's international super-bantamweight title. The result was a stoppage victory for the Filipino fighter in round 10, but Padilla has said that he allowed a long count in the fourth round when Pacquiao was dropped and struggled to regain composure.
The referee also said that he allowed a cut that was administered by a headbutt to be deemed as coming from a punch. This meant that when doctors' stopped the fight in the tenth, the bout was ruled a TKO victory for Pacquiao as opposed to the No Contest that would have been given had the correct call been made.
And the WBC have confirmed that they are now launching a review of what happened on the night of October 14 2000. They also published a letter from Padilla's daughter, who claimed that his quotes from the now-deleted interview with the governing body's YouTube channel were misconstrued due to his age.
A statement from Mauricio Sulaiman, the WBC president, read: "The World Boxing Council has established a special panel to review the situation about legendary Referee Carlos Padilla with regards to some comments during an interview published by The WBC a few days ago.
"We have received a sensitive letter from Mr. Padilla´s daughter Suzy which is found in this release as she has addressed it to the boxing Community of the world. The letter is self-explanatory and I, as President of The WBC, as well as a human being who has known Mr. Padilla since I was 10 years old, I can certainly empathize with Suzy and the contents of her letter to the boxing Community. I will personally follow the process in the meantime, The WBC will not make any further public comments."
In her letter, Padilla's daughter Suzy insists that her father "is an 88-year-old man who is just that - old and ageing!" She also notes that English is his second language, and believes that "communications can be misconstrued" as a result, with some of his comments taken out of context. It's also referenced that he had a storied career, and she implores people to ask around the sport about her father's reputation.
Pacquiao has denied any wrongdoing, saying during a bilingual interview with Filipino station TV Patrol about the controversy: “We didn’t cheat. We were just favoured because it was our ‘home court’. As a boxer, I just did what I had to do. I’m just a boxer. I’m just doing my job inside the ring. That’s his problem, not mine.”
