As we all know by now, the split decision rendered in the Timothy Bradley-Manny Pacquiao fight has sent shockwaves throughout the boxing community. Once again the cries of ?Boxing is dead!? are reverberating across the country.
Many people, this writer included, have been crying out for something to be done to stop the wacky decisions seemingly handed down in boxing more and more frequently. Shrugging our collective shoulders and shaking our heads just isn?t cutting it anymore, especially when fans are shelling out 60 bucks to watch a fight, only to scream ?WHAT?!? at their televisions when the clear winner is handed a defeat by inept judges.
Recently, the WBO had five unidentified judges score the fight and each saw it for Pacquiao, most by a very wide margin.
So, what happened?
We, of course, suffer the obligatory naysayers shouting from the mountaintop that the fight was fixed, that Bob Arum bought the judges or that they are mad at Pacquiao for bringing God into the equation. But all one has to do is listen to the most celebrated judge of the evening attempt to justify his score and the truth is plain to see.
That judge is the ?legendary? Duane Ford.
He is considered legendary because he has scored hundreds of fights, many of them championship bouts. But one might find that somewhat scary when one hears what he had to say.
While interviewed by Jim Lampley on Lampley?s new show, ?The Fight Game,? Ford had some very strange things to say about how he scored the fight.
One thing he stated was that he was judging Pacquiao on a level in comparison to the Pacquiao he has seen in earlier fights. ?What I saw in the fourth round is that Pacquiao clearly won that,? Ford stated.
?He hurt Bradley,? Ford continued, ?but the Manny Pacquiao that I judged in the past would have finished him. He let him off the hook.?
So what does that mean? Does it mean Ford was penalizing Manny for not doing what Ford thought he should have done?
But wait, it gets better!
Remember, Ford scored the fight 115-113 for Bradley, which translates to 7-5 in rounds. He also told Lampley, ?What I personally saw that night is that the first six rounds, clearly Pacquiao was the winner. It was an exciting six rounds.?
Uh, begging your pardon, Duane, but if you saw Pacquiao clearly win the first six rounds, how come you only gave him five rounds on your scorecard? File that under things that make you go, ?Hmmmmm…?
Perhaps the most ridiculous thing Ford said to Lampley was that Bradley was landing a lot of punches on Pacquiao?s arms and gloves. Someone (Are you listening, Keith Kizer?) should inform this ?legendary? judge that if Bradley was landing on Manny?s arms and gloves, that means Pacquiao was blocking Bradley?s punches!
So apparently, Ford was penalizing Pacquiao for blocking Bradley?s punches and rewarding Bradley for just throwing the punch, whether it connected or not.
Quite frankly, what this writer finds particularly disturbing is that Duane Ford, the man who made these absurd statements, actually teaches young judges how to score a fight. Want to fix boxing? We can start there!
Listen, when a man is willing to step into a ring and risk his life facing another man whose sole purpose is to destroy him, well, that man deserves a fair shake. Manny Pacquiao was not given a fair shake that night and Duane Ford should never be allowed to judge a boxing match again. His mere presence at ringside will be enough to cast suspicion on whatever boxing commission puts him there.
Allan Scotto can be reached at [email protected].
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