Timothy Bradley (29-0, 12 KOs), who has never headlined a pay-per-view card and had to be on a wheel chair after the fight because he injured both ankles since the second round, did something Juan Manuel Marquez, Shane Mosley, Antonio Margarito, Miguel Cotto, Oscar De La Hoya and many other high profile boxers couldn’t do… he won a split decision over today’s pound for pound king, Manny Pacquiao (54-2-2, 38 KOs) on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Pacquiao landed 505 punches with 73% while Bradley, 318, 47% according to CompuBox. On top of that, Pacquiao seemed to land the more powerful shots but that was not enough for the champ to beat the underdog… go figure.
“I did my best,” Pacquiao said after the fight. “I guess my best wasn’t good enough. He never hurt me with his punches; most of them landed on my arms.”
Bradley seemed to be hurt in the fourth and fifth rounds and Pacquiao was in command from the opening bell but not on the judge’s scorecards.
Judges C.J. Ross and Duane Ford had it for Bradley, 115-113. Jerry Roth had it for Pacquiao, 115-113.
I have been following boxing for years now and I have seen bad calls but this is probably the worse I have ever seen.
Leading up to the fight I kept asking myself why Bradley kept talking about a rematch like he knew he was going to win. Bradley was so confident that he had oversized tickets printed up for a Nov. 10 rematch that now will most likely happen.
I hate to say this…but I think the fight was fixed. I don’t think Pacquiao had any knowledge but his promoter, Bob Arum and the judges, we’re probably in it.
During the post fight Bob Arum played the role of being upset but you know he was happy.
“I’m going to make a lot of money on the rematch but this was outrageous,” stated Bob Arum.
Some people might say it was karma for Juan Manuel Marquez controversial decisions but you can’t compare those competitive fights with this. At the end it’s the boxing fans that lose.
A fixed fight decision ?!! And with either Arum or King involved ! How could anyone possibly think such a thing could occur ?!! Yeah right, so what else is new with professional boxing…. I thought that Bradley did have a good chance of winning a decision over Pacquiao, and, well, he did. Except that it was another bad joke on all of us fans. So, we’ll listen to all the usual hype that will come with the rematch build-up, but what boxing fans need to do is to send a message to these crooks that put on these over-priced pay-per-view shows. Fellow Fans, stop spending your hard-earned cash on these Arum or King promoted events, and then see how long it takes them to start cleaning-up these shows and lowering the viewing cost. It does no good to whine about a bad decision, if we really want to fight back the only way is to hit these thieves in the only place they are capable of feeling real pain, their bank accounts !!! Seriously, fans, if you’ve had enough , stop paying for these pay-per-view shows, it’s the only way to begin to putting an end to so many bad decision outcomes. And we can start by refusing to buy the Bradley/Paquiao rematch ….
I’m just praying my $40.00 rebate coupon from Tecate works, or did Bob Arum scam me on that too?
Like I already said on the other article, inicially I scored the fight 116-112 the night of the fight, even thinking that I may have been too generous in one of the rounds that I had given to Bradley. During the fight did notice that Manny was using the “De La Hoya Tactic’ of fighting the last 30 seconds to seemingly steal the rounds. As I replayed the fight last night I focused in on a few rounds that Bradley was ahead for the first 2+ minutes before Manny would come on ‘in a rush’ and impress the viewers & HBO team. BUT.. did he do enough to win those rounds?? hmmm.. Maybe/apparently in the eyes of the judges HE DIDN’T. Was the fact that Bradley was ahead for most of the round enough for the judges?? Remember, the officials don’t rely on a punch counter as they focus their attention on the fight. I usually try to disregard Lederman’s card, although I respect his outlook and comments, whether I agree or not. AND… I have don’t have much faith/trust in the compubox numbers, although for the most part they are pretty accurate but not always trustworthy. We’ve ALL seen how ocasionally the “darlings” receive unmerited “consideration” to protect the Network’s interest. Well.. after the replay and all things I mentioned above considered I had it 115-113 in favor of Manny, which is closer than what I initially thought. Can/Should/Could the scores like 119-109/118-110/117-111 in favor of Pacquiao be considered be as equally ‘off base’ as the 115-113 votes in favor of Bradley?? Oh well, just trying to be as OBJECTIVE and FAIR as I can. Now, you can fire when ready. Peace
I have to agree it was all set up to sell tickets for a rematch. I will not pay to see that . I was very disappointed with the outcome of this fight. Big dissapointment for those of us who enjoy watching the sport.
Disgusting call, no doubt this is a ploy to sell the rematch. I won’t pay for it as I didn’t the first fight. I watched it free and was still disgusted by the call of the fight.
Fuck Arum !!!!!! I will never pay top rank ppv again was a waste of time and a lack of respect to us the reals boxing fans
@ it all politricks in the boxing game.” ppl whenever things happen to any of us in life.” please alway know that it was designed to happen just the way it I’d whether u ever understand it or not or Believe it b/c it doesn’t matter b/c it becomes ur reality like it or not.” 🙁
I think paquiao did win but still his performance wasnt of a top pound for pound fighter , now the question is will people want to see him fight a real top fighter or is he able to hang against a man like mayweather or why not martinez when bradley wasnt sopoused to be a real challenge
Wow! It all makes sense oversized ticket on a rematch, Bradley stating I’m gonna shock the world!. Bob arum is a sneaky bastard he wants both of his top rank boxers to fight again, to double his money!!! Boxing is not a sport it’s a buisness.
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