In his most honest moment, right after ring announcer Michael Buffer’s stunning announcement, not even Timothy Bradley had the audacity to say he thought he beat Manny Pacquiao.
Bradley told HBO’s Max Kellerman he’d have to go home and watch a tape of their instantly infamous welterweight title fight to see “if” he won. That tells you all you need to know about just how horribly wrong judges Duane Ford and C.J. Ross were to score Bradley a 115-113 winner of a 12-round fight he so obviously lost.
Even the third judge, Jerry Roth, didn’t give Pacquiao proper credit for the easy victory the Filipino superstar earned at MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Roth scored the fight 115-113, for Pacquiao, who wasn’t overly impressive, yet seemingly won nine of the 12 rounds by landing harder punches, particularly his straight left, with greater frequency.
A 117-111 win would’ve reflected what actually occurred in the ring. Unofficial CompuBox statistics strongly suggested that type of wide win for Pacquiao.
CompuBox credited Pacquiao with landing 253 of 751 overall punches, 94 more than Bradley (159 of 839). Pacquiao connected on 190 of 493 power punches as well, 82 more than Bradley (108 of 390).
The ever-respectful Pacquiao predictably took the controversial loss gracefully. The No. 2 pound-for-pound boxer in the world reiterated that he respects the judges and their decisions, and didn’t dare utter the word “robbery,” an overused term that actually would’ve applied in this instance.
“Some rounds, I took off and relaxed and didn’t throw so many punches,” Pacquiao said. “I could give him three rounds, and almost every round I hurt him. I know he felt that.”
What Pacquiao wouldn’t say is that this is indisputably one of the worst decisions in recent boxing history.
In the last 20 years, only the dubious draws between Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis and Julio Cesar Chavez and Pernell Whitaker are comparable in such high-profile fights. Lewis appeared to win nine rounds in his first fight against Holyfield 13 years ago at Madison Square Garden, and Whitaker should have won nine rounds against Chavez nearly 19 years ago in San Antonio.
But at least Lewis and Whitaker weren’t subjected to having ridiculous losses on their records.
