MANNY PACQUIAO VS TIMOTHY BRADLEY: A BLACK EYE IN
BOXING / FIGHT ANALYSIS
LAS VEGAS, JUNE 10, 2012 (BLEACHERREPORT ONLINE)
After 12 rounds of Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley, it seemed as though
everyone in the world had witnessed Pacquiao's 55th victory.
Then, the three judges at ringside got their say:
•Judge Jerry Roth: Pacquiao 115-113 Bradley
•Judge C.J. Ross: Pacquiao
113-115 Bradley
•Judge Duane Ford: Pacquiao 113-115 Bradley
In one of the most shocking upsets in boxing history, Bradley defeated
Pacquiao by split decision to take the WBO welterweight title.
Official Pacquiao-Bradley Scorecards
This should be the greatest night of Bradley's life. A night where fans
applaud his gutsy performance, against one of boxing's greatest fighters of all
time.
Instead, his career-defining moment will forever be tarnished by controversy.
How could judges give rounds to Bradley where he was out-punched and
out-worked? How can so many people see a fight one way and have those who
ultimately matter see it completely the opposite?
Unfortunately, this is nothing new. Welcome to the sport of boxing.
The sport has lost credibility with fans largely due to contentious
decisions. Fights are subjective, where one "qualified" official decides who
controls the action and based on a historical point system who is declared the
winner.
But, it seems, each judge has his or her own interpretation of what a winning
fighter looks like. What is effective aggression? How does someone show ring
generalship? One judge seeing a fighter "running" is another judge's "defensive
counter puncher."
We know boxing isn't perfect; the judging system will probably always be
flawed. But, decisions like Pacquiao-Bradley are unacceptable.
So, where does this leave these two fighters?
Both men fight under the Top Rank umbrella. With Bob Arum promoting the two
boxers, negotiations should be quick and painless. The rematch should take place
in November.
Hopefully, we get a boxing classic. A rematch for the ages. It's the least
the fight can do to make up for what their first encounter produced...
A black eye to the entire sport.
FROM SB NATION: ANALYSIS
Pacquiao Vs. Bradley Results And Post-Fight Analysis
Jun 10 1:58a by Brent Brookhouse
I have watched a lot of boxing in my life and have seen more than my
fair share of robberies.
When Paul Williams was given a gift decision over Erislandy Lara, it felt
wrong but predictable. When Tavoris Cloud got an undeserved win over Gabriel
Campillo, it was the same. Even Brandon Rios over Richard Abril (to complete the
hat trick of fairly recent robberies I can remember in my post-fight haze) made
sense.
But Timothy Bradley getting the nod over Manny Pacquiao in a fight that
Pacquiao appeared to very clearly win makes no sense in the typical line of
boxing thinking.
Timothy Bradley's biggest fight prior to this was against Devon Alexander in
what was supposed to be a massively important fight but instead turned out to be
a complete box office flop.
He is not a draw whereas Pacquiao is one of the world's biggest superstars.
The close calls go the way of the superstar, that's just how the sport works.
It's not because of people getting "paid off" or anything quite so nefarious.
It's usually just that these things affect the judges. They know a guy, they pay
more attention to him, it makes everything they do seem bigger and better ...
etc.
The Tim Bradley's of the world don't get their hand raised in robberies. My
mind is blown.
On to some quick hit thoughts on the night's action:
■Given that these two are going to have a rematch, Bradley's focus has to be
on dealing with the straight left hand of Pacquiao. He made a few nice
adjustments to get that punch to stop landing with the frequency it was, but it
was still Manny's best shot through the entire first half of the bout. His lack
of power against Manny's heavy hands will remain an issue the second time
around, however.
■Yes, the calf stretching thing before the start of the main event was weird,
but the timing of it all was close to in line with what is expected in major
boxing PPV's. As I said all week, main event fights usually start right around
midnight. Mayweather vs. Cotto got going right around 11:50, Pacquiao vs.
Marquez at 11:47. When Jorge Arce vs. Jesus Rojas ended early, I tweeted for
people to get ready for 45 minutes of time being killed. This was before the
whole "where's Manny?" bit and then finding out that he was stretching out.
Camps tend to have plans based around certain start times and that appears to
have been the case here. It wasn't so much that he made everyone wait as it was
that the fight before ended early, creating a weird time gap and Manny simply
wasn't ready to go yet.
■One thing I hope doesn't happen here is that Bradley gets treated like the
"bad guy." He didn't turn in the scorecards. If anything, he deserves a lot of
credit for turning in a gutsy performance and not quitting despite seeming to be
outgunned and having hurt his foot/ankle early in the fight. He never stopped
battling and deserves a lot of credit for the way he fought.
■It's a real shame the Jorge Arce vs. Jesus Rojas fight was stopped on the
odd fouls and injury in the second round. That was setting up to be a typical
Arce-style barnburner.
■Mike Jones was failing in so many different ways before getting KO'ed by
Randall Bailey. Jones was supposed to be in the "showcase" position, but fought
a horrible, boring fight. He may have been winning, but no one was going to be
interested in watching him fight again when it was all over with. Getting KO'ed
on top of that performance could actually be the end of Jones getting chances on
big stages.
■How cool is it that Randall Bailey won a title tonight? You could go into a
whole discussion about what titles are legitimate and all that, but, watching
Bailey break down in tears after winning, you need to understand that these
titles have very real meaning to the men fighting for them.
■Guillermo Rigondeaux is really good and Teon Kennedy was nowhere near his
level. With all of tonight's drama, that opening fight feels like it was days
ago. Still, quite the showing for Rigondeaux.
Chief News Editor: Sol
Jose Vanzi
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