LAS VEGAS ? Irate boxing promoter Bob Arum blamed the controversial scoring of Timothy Bradley’s split decision over Manny Pacquiao as a case of incompetence, not corruption, and advocates a restructuring of how judges are selected for high-profile bouts.
Pacquiao is the big superstar for Top Rank, Arum’s promotion company, and he regularly commands at least $25 million per fight. With Pacquiao’s loss to Cathedral City’s Bradley on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, the proposed mega-fight for Pacquiao against Floyd Mayweather hit a major snag. Pacquiao and Mayweather could command record paydays in the $60 million range.
During Saturday night’s fight, Arum awarded Pacquiao 10 of the 12 rounds to give him a dominating victory. However, two of the three judges scored the bout 115-113, or seven rounds to five, in favor of Bradley to give him the split decision and the WBO welterweight title.
The third judge awarded the bout to Pacquiao 115-113, which was still much closer than how Arum and a large majority of boxing writers scored the fight.
Addressing the media, Arum said, ?All of you people, you never agree on anything. Here, the only argument was if it was 10-2 or 11-1. It was craziness.?
Then Arum turned his attention to the three judges ? CJ Ross and Duane Ford, who scored in favor of Bradley, and Jerry Roth, who scored the fight for Pacquiao.
?I wouldn’t say disgraceful. They were ridiculous,? the 80-year-old Arum said. ?I think the real problem is, look at the three judges. They had a woman who never judged a title fight, an inexperienced woman.
?You had two experienced judges who were as old as me. You have to have younger people. If you’re older ? and I know, I speak from experience ? you can’t have the same attention span as a younger person.?
Bradley and trainer Joel Diaz didn’t respond to Arum’s statements, other than to say that he’s the promoter and the boss, so he’s entitled to his opinion.
