Boxing Moves On!

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Photos by Stacey Verbeek

In the moments after the split decision was announced that a new champion had been crowned this past saturday night not named Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather in front of the packed MGM Grand Garden arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. What was mostly cheers and chants for Manny Pacquiao during the fight quickly turned into boos and anger for the pro Pacquiao crowd.

A large number of fans in the arena as well as the millions of viewers of the fight all but had Pacquiao winning and winning easily. However, it was not to be and the boxing world must accept the fact and move on.

In the 72 hours or so that have passed since the announcement the decision has been a topic of discussion, not only within the boxing community but in general sports conversations as well.

While it is nice for boxing to be in the general sports conversation, the reason it is, is not so good. The boxing community is calling the fight a fix, that Top Rank CEO Bob Arum had something to do with the decision and while the judges are being questioned it seems as if they are being left alone while everyone points the finger at Arum. Bob Arum may be a lot of things but a crook? That is hard to believe and no matter how poor the decision may have been, to actually point the finger at Arum and believe that he has THAT much power to bribe judges in this day of age seems a bit of a stretch.

The fight was not fixed nor was there some grand scheme to fix the outcome of the fight. The truth is that it was poor judging by humans. It is not the first time a highly questionable call has been made in boxing nor will it be the last.

What’s done is done.

Arum may be trying to get the attorney general involved and trying to make it an issue and to a degree he should. What occurred Saturday night should have not had happened. It did and now the fans as Manny Pacquiao will do is to move on.

What needs to happen is promoters, boxing journalists, as well as fans need to start looking into the judges more closely. All three judges Saturday night have judged a number of high profile fights Duane Ford, CJ Ross and Jerry Roth all have had their share of championship bouts. However this cannot be the first time they scored a fight poorly. Fighters and promoters should also, if they believe that certain judges are corrupt refuse to allow who those certain judges be allowed to participate in fights, or atleast make enough noise where it may get the attention of the commissions as well as the fans as to the promoters concerns.

An example would be, Paulie Malignaggi stated before his first fight with Juan Diaz in Texas that if it went to the scorecards he would lose no matter what. On August 22nd, 2009, Paulie looked as if he was right as he lost a unanimous decision to the hometown favorite. In a fight that many felt Paulie had won. The WBO called for an immediate rematch and 4 months later in Chicago, Illinois, Paulie would win the rematch. The rematch may never had happened if Paulie had not talked about the biased he felt before the fight. His statements gained attention and after the call it seemed to be highly suspicious. It may not be the best move but if a fighter and his team have reservations about judges, especially ones that have a past of questionable calls it may the only way for fighters to protect themselves.

However, barring specific judges would not be beneficial because then you would have promoters in a position where they could appoint almost whomever they like as judges for their fighters fights and that would lead boxing nowhere.

The judging was not boxing’s finest moment especially when it was the most popular boxer in the world fighting, but in the end, Pacquiao lost. Right, wrong, good or bad.

Boxing moves on.

And then…

Many are saying Pacquiao’s loss ruins any chance of a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight and that is simply not true. The fight was NEVER going to happen- win, lose or draw. Mayweather and Pac would have ever came to an agreement. There is far too much animosity, distrust and dislike between Pacquiao, Mayweather and Arum.

Now, with the Pacquiao loss regardless of the poor judging, it only furthers Mayweather defense in not agreeing to a 50/50 split with Pac. Once Mayweather gets out of jail he is going to have a field day with the Pacquiao loss. He will have some words for Pacquiao and Arum-Maybe not right away but eventually he will let his feeling be known.

It doesn’t matter either. Pacquiao must attempt to avenge his loss to Bradley before any other fight for him take. He defeats Bradley, he retires, he loses, he retires. Furthermore, Pacquiao and Mayweather both are not what they were when the fight was first talked about a few years ago. Other than the fight being exciting just for the simple fact of the two best fighters of this era getting in the ring as the best fighters should it is not near the fight it would have been. The fight lost its luster.

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4 COMMENTS

  1. What up Edgar, I hope everthings been good with you bro. I’ve been watching and listening, I just haven’t been commenting or buying lol. I’m hoping something will change for the better in this sport we enjoy so much but I don’t have high hopes. I still love boxing and always will I just don’t like the mess of dishonesty it has turned into. I just want to say you guys that run this site do a great job, I dont comment alot but I still come in read the articles, and check up on whats new. God bless guys, and girls

  2. What up fellas? I hope your all doing well. I haven’t left any comments on here since after the Cotto/Mayweather fight, when I said that I would be leaving few comments if any from now on and that I was basicly done with the B/S in this sport. I couldn’t continue putting my heart into this sport inlight of what I have witnessed over the last 3 to 4 years and Cotto/Mayweather was the “last straw” for me, so needless to say I didn’t watch Pac/Bradly; i’ll see it for free when I get a chance. I’ll just say that I’m not surprised by this, not one bit. Friends invited me to their houses to watch for free and I chose to stay home and watch the celtics game, BTW the Heat suck LOL.

    Boxing has always had an occational bad call here and there, I know cuz I’ve been a fan my entire life. Boxing is now nothing more than a disgrace and believe me when I say that hurts me to say that. It’s more than just bad calls. Some promoters (you all know which ones) don’t work together to give the fans the best fights anymore. There are one to many refs that can’t be counted on to call a fair fight, never mind a title fight. One to many times I’ve seen fights stopped to early or points taken unfairly. I also have a problem the networks pretending to be promoters. We have a big mess of fake titles that meen nothing, catch weights and silver belts? We have fighters failing drug test left and right; and idiots loading gloves. We have foreign fighters coming here to prove there skills and getting robbed. We have succer punching and headbutting like WWE.

    The judging has been one of the worst things of the sport. I’ve never seen so much bad judging in my life than in the last 3-4 years, it shameful. I submit to you all this is noy boxing, this is a hollywood reality show and as we all know reality shows are not reality at all. Some ppl will defend the sport cuz they depend on the sport for a living but the truth is they are praying you all won’t lose interest and they say “you know you will still watch cuz we love the sport” cuz they need you to watch. Don’t keep falling for it guys, its just not worth your hard earned dollars.

    I enjoy the sport from a distance now, its just better that way.

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