One week later: it’s been a full week since the Pacquiao – Bradley fight. How many of you have gone back and watched the fight? How many times have you re-watched the fight with the sound off not to avoid being swayed by the commentators? And finally, how many of you have changed your opinion of the final outcome of the fight?
Judging by the fans I have spoken with, what I’ve read on social networks, and the many polls I have seen, it’s almost staggering the amount of people who still believe Manny was the clear winner. In most cases 80 to 90% of the people believe he won the fight. You can bring up the fact that Manny Pacquiao’s many fans would have sated he was robbed no matter what and that is true, but Manny also has plenty of haters who could have said he lost the fight no matter how the fight evolved. The overwhelming majority of Pacquiao haters and admirers believe he won the fight.
Timothy Bradley: let’s make one thing clear, we can’t blame Bradley for what happened that night. He did his job to the best of his ability, no one can question that. You can’t blame him for the judging of the fight nor should you. If a fix was in (I don’t personally believe there was) I highly doubt Tim was in on it. From what I have seen of him and judging by how others have spoken so highly of him, I truly believe he’s a stand up guy. Since the fight, Bradley has taken to his Twitter account and stated he has gone back and watched the fight and believes he won the fight and I believe he really believes that. It can be very hard -if not impossible at times- not to be biased towards oneself. How many of you really thought Bradley would re-watch the fight and go on to declare, “I believe I lost and will hand the title back to Manny Pacquiao?” If Bradley were to do that he could say goodbye to a big payday rematch.
The rematch: Should a rematch take place? Does Manny validate the judges decision by taking the rematch? If Pacquiao and most of the world believe he won the fight is there a need for a second fight? I’m not terribly interested in a rematch, as I believe it would not end up very similar to the first. The only person who would benefit from it is Bradley and that’s only if he can do what the judges told us he did the first time, by actually winning the fight. Another question that needs to be asked is will the judges be so panicked after the first fight they’ll give the fight to Pacquiao no matter what? Can Timothy Bradley even win a decision in a rematch?
Duane Ford: Out of the three judges who worked the fight, Duane Ford is the only one that I’ve seen come out and talk to the press expressing why he scored the fight in favor of Bradley. Earlier in the week he was ridiculed for saying he saw Bradley give Pacquiao a “boxing lesson.” Ford also appeared on Jim Lampley’s new HBO show, “The Fight Game,” to field a few questions which I thought would be great idea, until I heard Ford talk and what he said sounded very scripted to me.
Are you buying it?: Immediately after the scorecards were announced fight fans from all over the globe took their podiums of choice, yelling to the world two things: 1) they were finished with boxing or 2) they would boycott a rematch. My question to you is this: If the rematch does take place, are you buying it?
