Manny Pacquiao reflected on his Christian faith and said "God is good" after he controversially lost his WBO welterweight title to Australian Jeff Horn over the weekend.
Just after his stunning loss, Pacquiao took to Instagram to share a photo of himself smiling alongside his wife, Jinkee.
The 38-year-old Filipino boxer captioned the photo: "Tough fight but win or lose, always know that I give everything I've got for the Lord, my family, my country and my fans! Thank you for your support and congratulations to Jeff Horn. God is good! #TeamPacquiao."
Horn, a 29-year-old former schoolteacher, beat Pacquiao, an eight-time world champion, following a unanimous points decision in Brisbane, Australia.
Immediately following the fight, Pacquiao, whose defeat was his first since losing to Floyd Mayweather Jr in 2015, said he had to respect the decision and noted that he had a clause for a rematch. He later told a Philippines news channel that he'd been confident he'd won the fight.
"I didn't expect (he would be) that tough," the Christian fighter said. "That's the decision of the judges, I respect that. I feel his power. He is strong. He was a tough opponent. I tried to knock him out in the ninth round, but he survived. In the ninth round, I thought I am going to win the fight."
When asked if he'd be returning later in the year for a rematch, the former world champion replied: "Absolutely, yes. We have a rematch clause, so no problem."
Manny Pacquiao pictured with his wife, Jinkee
Despite Pacquiao's positivity, a number of athletes - including Aaron Rodgers, Kobe Bryant, and DeMar DeRozan - took to social media to express their negative reactions to judge Waleska Roldan's 117-111 card, as well as the identical 115-113 cards of judges Chris Flores and Ramon Cerdan.
Former world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis tweeted: "This is what's wrong with boxing. Horn was very game but I'm hard pressed to see how he could have won that fight by any stretch!"
Former heavyweight boxer Justin Fortune, who has been working with Pacquiao since 2002, also told reporters he did not agree with the result.
"The referee was sketchy, the judges were crazy," Fortune said. "Manny lost the fight, but Jeff Horn looks like a pumpkin. Those scores, that card? It should be the other way around."
He added, "You get given a gift sometimes, you get screwed sometimes. But when you come to someone's house you're supposed to mess them up ... never leave it in the judge's' hands."
However, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said it was a "close fight. It could have gone either way."
"A couple of close rounds, but you can't argue with the result," he said after the fight. "I scored a lot of the early rounds for Jeff. Then I had Manny coming back in the middle. The 12th round, Jeff really won. If you give Manny the 11th, you have it a draw. You give Jeff the 11th, it's 7-5."
In turn, Horn defended his win but praised Pacquiao as an "absolute warrior".
"Manny Pacquiao is...a legend of the sport," he said. "He might have come underdone in this fight, I don't know. I guess if we have a rematch and he put his all in, he might come in better, I don't know."
Horn added, "There will always be a backlash where people say I got lucky, or whatever. There will always be the naysayers saying I did not win the fight, but I felt like I won the fight. A lot of Queenslanders think I won the fight and people around the world."
