From the moment that Timothy Bradley was announced as the split decision winner over Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas Saturday night, shock waves of anger and outrage have blasted through cyberspace.
From Twitter to Facebook to countless online message boards, the world has been abuzz with talk of, perhaps, the most egregiously bad decision in the controversial world of professional boxing.
To refresh memories, Manny Pacquiao, in defense of his WBO welterweight title, seemingly dominated an overmatched Timothy Bradley with relative ease, garnering a 118-110 score on this writer’s scorecard and no less than 116-112 in every reputable expert’s estimation.
The decision seemed a mere formality as thoughts of Manny’s next opponent began to enter into the public discourse. Then, the scores were read:
Judges C.J. Ross and Duane Ford scored the fight 115-113 for Bradley while Jerry Roth saw Pacquiao taking the bout by the same 115-113 margin.
The outrage immediately spread throughout the boxing community and various conspiracy theories began to emerge as a way to explain how such an apparently one-sided bout could be scored so oddly.
The media rushed to try and understand the ruling and make some sense of the situation while fans were, literally, stunned by the outcome.
Some fans and members of the media took matters into their own hands and chose to begin online petitions.
One such petition, started by Keith Terceira, has gone viral, already garnering close to 8,000 virtual signatures at the time this article is being written.
Posted on Change.org, the petition aims to have the decision from Saturday night’s bout overturned and the judges investigated.
“This is important to restore the semblance of fairness and honesty in the sport of boxing,” Terceira writes. “These judges should be investigated and suspended. The WBO should be asked to review the films and set the record straight or lose what little credibility the sanctioning bodies retain.”
The petition encourages fans from all over the world to vote and make their protests heard by the governor of Nevada as well as the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
