I didn’t watch the fight. I’m not a boxing fan. If it’s on TV and I’m channel-flipping, I’ll watch it. I tend to prefer the faster punching of lightweights than the slumbering heavyweights. Being a fan of martial arts movies,I like watching boxing, but I’ve never became a fan. After what happened over the weekend, I’m not sure if I’ll ever become one.
Every article I’ve read states the same thing: Manny Pacquaio won the fight, even if Timothy Bradley came on strong towards the end. The math was easy. Here are some scoring figures gathered by Forbes:
- Yahoo! Sports scored the fight 117-111 for Pacquiao;
- Tim Dahlberg of the AP scored the fight 117-111 for Pacquiao;
- Steve Carp of the Las Vegas Review-Journal scored the fight 117-111 for Pacquiao;
- Dan Rafael of ESPN scored the fight 118-110 for Pacquiao;
- HBO’s Harold Lederman scored the fight 119-109 for Pacquiao.
Not convinced? Here’s more, “According to CompuBox, Pacquiao landed 34% of his punches compared to 19% for Bradley. Furthermore, Pacquiao landed 82 more power shots.”
Two of the three judges that mattered on ring side, Duane Ford and C.J. Ross, disagree and gave the fight to Bradley. According to Ford, “Bradley gave Pacquiao a boxing lesson... Pacquiao missed a lot of punches and ... was throwing wildly.”
Jerry Roth, the only judge who gave the fight to Pacquiao had this to say, "I'm looking for effective aggressiveness. I thought Pacquiao won a lot of the early rounds, and I thought Bradley came on in the end. That's why I gave Bradley the last three rounds. But I still thought Pacquiao had done enough to win."
According to ESPN boxing analyst Teddy Atlas, the crooks had won and will be rewarded with another big fight in the form of a rematch. The crooks being the people who put the fight together and fixed the outcome. So far, every analyst I’ve read shared a similar sentiment.
It’s also interesting what Atlas said about how this will affect the dream match up between Floyd Mayweather Jr., who’s currently in jail, and Pacquiao. Mayweather had refused to fight Pacquiao because many believe he knows he would lose. Now that Bradley is the new welterweight champion, Mayweather can skip Pacquiao and just fight Bradley, a fighter he can beat.
Despite the controversy, executives at the Nevada State Athletic Commission said the decision will stay, and there will not be a review. It’s amazing how something like this could go on in a sport without being reviewed. Just outrageous.
