When most tuned into Saturday’s battle between Manny Pacquiao and Jeff Horn on ESPN, they were greeted by longtime controversial personality Stephen A. Smith yelling at them through the TV screen. He made no friends early on, essentially undercutting the fight by condemning Horn to a loss before he even stepped into the ring and criticizing his path to his fight with Pacquiao. It wasn’t pretty and it left plenty of folks reacting like this:
so @espn has Kellerman & Rafael under contract, but they put Stephen A. Smith in for studio "analysis"? #PacquiaoHorn pic.twitter.com/YmhEeS7xEH
— Grippy Grip from the Café Black Rose (@ThatChrisParks) July 2, 2017
But then the fight happened and Horn stunned everybody but Pacquiao it seemed after winning the fight by unanimous decision. Plenty cried foul immediately after the decision, but none were louder than Stephen A. Smith. Not only did he question how such a decision could be made, he questioned where the judges loyalties were by calling them out live on the air:
https://twitter.com/thevvindycity/status/881382866256572416
That was far from the end for Smith’s rant, with the former Skip Bayless foil venting all of his frustrations from the fight to the viewing audience and roping Tim Bradley into the fury while attempting to get him to agree with his point of view. It was the equivalent of being knocked in the head by Biff from Back To The Future for close to 15 minutes straight:
https://twitter.com/thevvindycity/status/881384900036886528
It was at this point that the worm turned for Smith in the eyes of the people out there watching at home — at least for this singular moment. His brash tone captured the collective confusion of the masses in the proper way for once and his brand of discourse lent itself to the general craziness after the fight ended.
https://twitter.com/Sam_Vecenie/status/881378555111682048
Let's check in with @stephenasmith on the fight pic.twitter.com/d3F7YuJIeW
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) July 2, 2017
And honestly, most of Smith’s job was done for him by the fight itself. When people see numbers like this, they really seem to want someone to just yell about it on television for 30 minutes straight. Things will likely return to normal once the dust has settled and Kevin Durant does something of any interest.
(Via ESPN)
