Archive for the ‘Manny Pacquiao’ Category

Pacquiao Gets Jobbed

Posted: June 10, 2012 in Boxing, Manny Pacquiao, Timothy Bradley
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The Big Guy watched the Pacquiao-Bradley fight tonight. Shocking. Simply unjust.

According to promoter Bob Arum: “I went over to Bradley before the decision and he said, `I tried hard but I couldn’t beat the guy.'”

Compubox showed that Pacquiao outlanded Bradley by nearly 100 punches. The defending WBO welterweight champion beat Bradley 119-109 on HBO’s Harold Lederman’s card. No one on HBO had Bradley winning. Quite simply, I do not know how anyone could have.

There is word of a number of members in press row scoring the fight for Bradley. However, the punch numbers (Pacquiao landed nearly 2-1) do more than discredit the split decision that stumbled Bradley’s way. I have a few theories for how this happened:

  1. Pacquiao pissed off the judges by delaying the fight. The undercard finished in unexpectedly quick fashion and while Bradley burned half an hour with gloves on, Pacquiao loosened his legs on the treadmill. Did the judges discredit Pacquiao for his delay tactics?
  2. The judges punished Pacquiao’s lack of killer instinct. The two judges who scored the fight for Bradley scored it 115-113. HBO reported that of the last nine score cards (the three judges’ last three rounds scored), eight went to Bradley. Pacquiao did ease back in the 10th round but did not appear to lose either the 11th or 12th by any stretch of the imagination. He also did not go for the knockout. Bradley was game throughout the fight but only appeared to hurt Pacquiao once (in a middle round, and Pacquiao responded immediately) while Pacquiao damaged Bradley multiple times.
  3. The judges punished Pacquiao’s 2-1 strategy. Pacquiao consistently used his footwork navigate his way through the first two minutes of the round. As many great boxers before him have done, Pacquiao would then flip the switch and do more in one minute than his opponent could do in two. Did the judges not see that?

It is hard to support boxing after a decision like this. Pacquiao outclassed Bradley. He out-punched him; he out-landed him. Both men displayed solid footwork and defense, but Pacquiao clearly held the power advantage— punching through Bradley’s block. Bradley proved game. Boxing proved lame.

The Big Guy