“First of all, everyone knows that I picked Bradley to win this fight,” explains the veteran trainer. “But it didn’t go the way I thought it was going to go, and I scored the fight nine rounds to three for Manny Pacquiao.” “There’s no way in the world that Bradley won this fight.”
“I think you could tell by just looking at Bradley’s wife when she was shown during the HBO broadcast. When the HBO cameras showed her while the fight was happening, you could see the sadness in her face. Her face told the story of her husband losing the fight.”
“When the verdict was announced, she looked so surprised. When Cameron Dunkin, Bradley’s manager, grabbed her after the decision was made…it looked like the fix was in. That’s what it looked like to me.”
Ronnie Shields knows all too well how it feels to be on the bad end of a gift decision. The experienced boxing coach’s Junior Middleweight star, Erislandy Lara, suffered a bitter defeat at the hands of the three New Jersey judges and not “The Punisher” Paul Williams on July 9th at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ.
As a result of the controversial ruling, all three judges who scored the bout a “Majority Decision” verdict in favor of the A-side fighter, Donald Givens, Hilton Whitaker, and Al Bennett, were suspended indefinitely by the New Jersey State Athletic Commission shortly after the fight’s outcome.
Ronnie Shields believes that similar action should be taken by Keith Kizer and the Nevada State Athletic Commission. “Not only should the two judges who scored the bout for Bradley be suspended, but all three should be reprimanded,” emphatically states the expert trainer. “115-113 in favor of Manny Pacquiao? C’mon, man…that’s just ridiculous. I just don’t know what any of those judges were looking at because there’s no way Bradley even won five of the twelve rounds.”
Although Shields can’t understand how two judges at ringside felt compelled to give Bradley seven of the twelve rounds on June 9th, the lifelong boxing proponent attempts to rationalize the irrational. “The only thing I can think of that might have placed a negative attitude in the minds of the judges is that Manny Pacquiao made everyone, including the NSAC, wait until the basketball game was over before he started warming up, stretching his calves, and even lacing up his gloves.” “I think a lot of people got understandably upset when he held up the entire fight because he wanted to finish watching a basketball game. How can one person make everyone wait like that? That was totally ridiculous and I think Manny really made everyone involved angry that night.”
“It’s really hard on a fighter like Bradley to be warmed up and ready to go physically and mentally; then to be told that he has to wait for his opponent because he’s not ready due to watching a basketball game when he should have been getting ready to fight?” “I thought it was so wrong for not only the commission to allow Pacquiao the extra time, but for Pacquiao to demand that he wasn’t going to start getting ready until after the basketball game. Was that stated in the contract? Why was that allowed?”
“I have never seen anything like that before in all of my years in boxing. I have never seen any fighter dictate when he was going to get ready for a fight and when he was going to leave the dressing room. I don’t know how anyone could have stood by and allowed one fighter to dictate when they’re going to come out of that dressing room. That’s crazy.” “Maybe the judges at ringside got upset with Pacquiao holding up the event and decided to look for some rounds to give Bradley. When Pacquiao stopped fighting for all three minutes of every round during the last half of the fight, I think that was the opening that they were looking for. “Although Bradley wasn’t landing any meaningful shots and Manny was still out-landing his opponent, the inactivity in the first two minutes gave the judges at ringside an opening to possibly justify giving Bradley the majority of the late rounds.”
Regardless of the pre-fight delay stipulated by Manny Pacquiao, Ronnie Shields truly believes the Filipino Congressman dominated the fight on June 9th and deserved a verdict of a wide unanimous decision. “Even though I don’t agree with Manny Pacquiao holding up the entire event like he did, fights are won and lost in the ring…not before fight begins.
Bradley didn’t do anything significant to deserve seven rounds on two of the judge’s scorecards. There is no way in the world Tim Bradley won that fight on June 9th.”
