In June 2012, unbeaten American boxer Timothy Bradley scored a split decision victory over Manny Pacquiao in a highly controversial decision that shocked almost everyone in the audience and the millions fans watching on television around the world. The fight was held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas Nevada with three boxing judges tasked to render a fair judgement on the 12-round title fight. At stake was Pacquiao’s WBO welterweight title. Judge Jerry Roth scored the fight in favor of Pacquiao (115-113) while Judges Duane Ford and C.J. Ross had the same identical score of 115-113 in favor of Bradley. The Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC), the state agency boxing regulator, released the breakdown of the judges scorecards and may be viewed here. After the fight, statistics revealed that Bradley lost to Pacquiao by a wide margin. The figures compiled by Compubox showed that Pacquiao landed 34% of the total punches thrown against Bradley’s 19%.
On jabs, Pacquiao landed 24% against Bradley’s 11% while on power punches, Pacquiao landed 39% against Bradley’s 28%. For round-by-round statistical breakdown, please click here. Compubox is a prestigious boxing fight data provider and reference site used by professional boxing trainers, coaches, promoters, TV networks, sports websites and other boxing stakeholders. For moire information about Compubox, please click here. On top of the Compubox statistics on the 2012 Pacquiao-Bradley fight, at least 53 media personalities, mostly journalists who watched the fight, said Pacquiao won while only 3 said Bradley was the winner. To validate the Compubox data and the unofficial media scorecards, the World Boxing Organization (WBO) summoned five seasoned boxing judges to watch the video of the bout and all of them said Pacquiao won the fight. Despite all these overwhelming figures, Bradley maintains that he won over Pacquiao, giving himself eight rounds with the remaining four rounds going to Pacquiao. Bradley should be ashamed in claiming that he indeed won over Pacquiao without any bases at all other than saying that he won a majority of eight of the 12 rounds. It would have been proper if he said that the judges decision was official and humbly tell the public that there is nothing more that he can do about it. To recall Bradley’s statement after the fight, he told his promoter Bob Arum, who likewise promotes Pacquiao, that he did his best but he just can’t beat Pacquiao. “I tried hard but I couldn’t beat the guy,” Bradley told Arum even before the scorecards were read. Former world champion Oscar De La Hoya, who lost to Pacquiao in 2008 ‘said that Bradley should have refused the title belt, and Pacquiao had won the fight.’ Longtime trainer and boxing commentator Teddy Atlas said that ‘Pacquiao clearly won, and that it was a case of either incompetence or corruption.’ Seemingly, Bradley is trying to hype the upcoming fight by claiming that he is the superior fighter but it would have been better if he just claimed the victory based on the official decision of the judges.
