Worldwide condemnation is the reaction to the travesty of justice in sports in general and boxing in particular that transpired Saturday night (Sunday morning in the Philippines) during the fight between Filipino Manny Pacquiao and American Timothy Bradley Jr. for the former?s World Boxing Organization welterweight title at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. After 12 rounds of a Pacquiao-dominated fight, strangely, two of the three American judges voted in favor of their compatriot, Bradley, 115-113. C.J. Ross and Duane Ford both scored it 115-113 for Bradley while Jerry Roth, saw it 115-113 for Pacquiao or seven 10-point rounds for Pacquiao and four for Bradley. This writer scored it also 115-113 for the Filipino boxing icon.
Lest we be accused of jingoism or extreme patriotism, it might be worthwhile to share with you the objective views of a number of knowledgeable boxing writers, boxers, and other athletes. Boxing legend Oscar de la Hoya weighed in on twitter to say, ?Bradley should have given the belt to Pacquiao right after the decision.? Former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis thought Pacquiao won the bout.
Bob Arum of Top Rank which stands to earn bundles of money in a Pacquiao-Bradley II and III, said while he?ll make a lot of money from a rematch,? this (decision in favor of Bradley) is outrageous?. Arum was quoted to have said that ?nothing is happening here except these people don?t know how to score. They really don?t. What are these three people looking at?? Cameron Dunkin, manager of Bradley, thought his ward won 10 of the 12 rounds. He probably thought it was the Bradley-Joel Casamayor fight he was scoring except that that fight lasted only eight rounds.
Most members of media shared de la Hoya?s, Lewis?s and Arum?s comments. A disgusted Teddy Atlas, a respected boxing journalist who is known to be anti-Pacquiao, thought the Filipino won and even hinted at dark forces corrupting boxing. HBO?s Harold Lederman scored it 119-109 although one of the two commentators of the HBO broadcast sounded like Bradley was thoroughly thrashing Pacquiao. Bryan Armen Graham of Inside Boxing however had a piece aptly titled, ?Pacquiao?s remarkable run comes to unjust ending against Bradley?.
Graham says ?injustices like the split decision that gave Timothy Bradley a controversial victory over Pacquiao are not unheard of in boxing. Yet that doesn?t make the stunning outcome of their welterweight title fight any easier to fathom. Pacquiao connected on 253 of 751 punches (34 percent), compared to 159 of 839 (19 percent) for Bradley, and out landed the challenger in 10 of the 12 rounds. ?.Sports Illustrated or SI.com, scored it 116-112 for Pacquiao?.
Graham asserts that, ?After everything that he?s done for boxing, Pacquiao is the last person who should have been cheated like this?Yet there he (Pacquiao) was early Sunday morning, addressing the press after coming up on the wrong end of a gruesome miscarriage of justice, and what did he say? ?Whatever happens, don?t be discouraged about boxing?.
The Agence France Presse (AFP) report stated, ?Unbeaten American Timothy Bradley ended Manny Pacquiao?s 15-fight unbeaten run with a controversial split decision victory…(even if) it appeared Pacquiao hurt Bradley throughout the fight ? particularly with his straight left hand.
Jake Emen of Yahoo Sports added his own insights into what amounts to highway robbery in broad daylight. Emen wrote: ?As soon as Pacquiao vs Bradley results were announced, a state of shock set in with the audience at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas as well as with fans watching across the globe?while watching the fight live, I unofficially scored the fight 117-111 in favor of Manny Pacquiao. I thought he clearly deserved to win, and given his stature in the sport, didn?t think the scorecards possibly could have come up differently. Even if I had been more generous to Bradley, I could have awarded another round or two to him on my card, and Pacquiao still would have won by a 115-113, or seven rounds to five rounds margin. But I just don?t see how Bradley could have won seven rounds in the match?.
I too was generous with Bradley to offset the natural bias that may have crept in while scoring the fight. It could have easily been 116-112 in my scorecard but to be fair to the talkative Bradley, I labored to be as objective as possible.
A Boxing Scene poll showed that out of 216 who responded to the question whom they thought won the fight, 186 or 86.11% chose Pacquiao while only 23 or 10.65% favored Bradley.
A rematch has been set. Hopefully that will correct the injustice even if the damage has been done and the talkative Bradley will certainly take advantage of a miracle that fell on his laps. We just wonder if there were honest errors committed or there were unseen hands manipulating and discrediting boxing again.
