To call Timothy Bradley’s victory over Manny Pacquiao shocking is perhaps the understatement of the year. To be more accurate Manny got screwed like a 10 dollar prostitute on half off night with the Navy in town.
After being clearly dominated for 12 rounds by Pacquiao, somehow he managed to garner the split decision victory by 115-113 on two scorecards. It was clear from the numbers and from actually watching the fight; Manny could’ve been argued to have won all 12 rounds, and at least 10. Coming into the fight Manny’s mental state, amongst others, was questioned and many people hedged their bets late in the game too. Picking against Manny became difficult but people started justifying their picks based on his personal life and the changes he’s made in the recent past. And now one thing is for sure more than anything else: The biggest fight that the sport can make right now is officially off for the time being. And something feels off about it to the point that this isn’t just a case of poor judging as it could be labeled.
While Floyd Mayweather may not have been able to watch the fight due to his recent incarceration for his latest brush with the law for domestic violence, he’s easily the biggest loser in all of this. The biggest match in boxing history, one in which both fighters could pocket $50 million, is now ruined because of a decision so inept that it’s not fathomable to even think that Bradley made that fight close. Bradley may have claimed to think he won the fight afterward but even he claimed he needed to go back and watch it again. Even Bradley seemed to say, without actually saying it, that the decision wasn’t as kosher as his celebration seemed to make it. One thing is abundantly clear about all of this.
There needs to be an investigation into all involved. Immediately.
Teddy Atlas spoke of Bob Arum and corruption on ESPN immediately after the fight was over and while it’s just an allegation at this point for the sake of all involved Keith Kizer and the Nevada State Athletic Commission need to launch more than just a cursory investigation into all of this. A number of things need to happen for anything but the stench of either corruption or payoffs to linger over this fight.
We need to get justifications from all three judges on why they scored the fights how they did. We need to know what they saw to give Bradley so many rounds when even a neophyte boxing fan could see Bradley lost the fight. If this was a case of incompetence from three judges who had fairly substantial resumes in the sport we need to know and correct that through education, etc. Manny (or any other fighter) can’t lose a fight for landing more often and landing harder, commanding the ring like a general and Bradley coming out like a beaten man for more than half the fight. If this is purely incompetence it needs to be corrected and corrected immediately, with proper punishments and sanctions to the judging staff from Keith Kizer.
And we need to launch an investigation into their personal lives, too, as this sort of incompetence smells of something foul.
While it’s highly doubtful that the fix was in from the judges, and there’s no evidence to support that argument outside of pure speculation at this point, there needs to be a look purely on grounds of ruling the corruption conspiracy out at its core. Boxing’s past isn’t a clean one and people are going to point to this fight as something akin to a grand conspiracy to screw Manny Pacquiao. When Teddy Atlas, one of boxing’s legendary analysts, is stating on the air that the fix was in because Pacquiao is leaving Arum then it needs to be investigated if only to avoid the appearance of impropriety.
That kind of talk on a fight this big has to be quelled by an investigation that is above board. And if something dirty happened all involved need to be banned from the sport as well.
Manny was screwed last night and so was Floyd Mayweather. We need to know why.
