TV Hosts Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless of the popular ESPN sports show “First Take” were visibly bothered by the controversial decision of judges favoring Bradley over Pacquiao during their fight in June 2012 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. This particular segment of “First Take” is relevant in the wake of speculations that the contract for a rematch between Pacquiao and Bradley has been finalized. “I have never been more shocked and in this case saddened by the outcome of the event,” Co-host Skip Bayless said during the show. According to Bayless, he had it 11-1 by the rounds in favor of Pacquiao and 119-109 on his scorecard. Bayless also said that Bradley talked to his promoter Bob Arum during the break saying: “Bob, I gave it may all, I just couldn’t beat the guy.” Bayless then wondered whether the fight was a set-up because a rematch had been set up with a date right after the fight though Arum qualified later that a rematch was not set in stone. Bayless ventured further saying that the judges must have been irked by Pacquiao’s delayed entry because he left the dressing area to watch his favorite NBA team Boston Celtics live on TV. He said he could not think of any valid reason for the one-sided scoring. The scoring controversy led to a decision by the sanctioning body to constitute five seasoned judges to review the video of the fight. After the review, all judges declared Pacquiao the winner. Unofficial scorecards by members of media covering the fight showed that 53 of the 56 sportswriters who voted, favored Pacquiao over Bradley by a wide margin. Despite the controversy, Bradley said he deserved the win but offered Pacquiao an immediate rematch. Now, Bradley will be under heavy pressure to prove that indeed he is the better fighter despite the controversy. But Pacquiao is determined to get back his WBO crown that Bradley “forcibly” took from him as a result of the controversial decision. Read more For his part, Smith lambasted what he calls “bogus judges and corrupt promoters” and urge the public not to buy pay-per-view subscriptions because “they don’t care about what the public wants and we shouldn’t care about what they do.” Smith, who also scored the fight in favor of Pacquiao by a wide margin said, “The sport of boxing doesn’t give two cents about us and they show it to us at every term., “We never see the fight that we want to see, precisely when we want to see them. We always wait years before things materialize because the sport is at the mercy of two different promoters and when we get it we see highway robberies of the highest order the way this went down.” In another episode of the show, Bayless and Smith had the popular boxing analyst Larry Merchant as their special guest and they has a lively discussion about boxing and the highly hyped Pacquiao-Mayweather fight. To view the video, click here.
