As soon as the Pacquiao vs. Bradley results were announced, a state of shock set in with the audience at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, as well as with fans watching across the globe. A Split Decision verdict was awarded to Timothy Bradley, with the scorecards reading 115-113 in his favor twice, against 115-113 for Manny Pacquiao from the third judge.
While watching the fight live, I unofficially scored the fight 117-111
in favor of Manny Pacquiao. I thought he clearly deserved to win, and
given his stature in the sport, didn't think the scorecards possibly
could have come up differently.
Even if I had been more generous to Bradley, I could have awarded
another round or two to him on my card, and Pacquiao still would have
won by a 115-113, or 7 rounds to 5 rounds margin. But I just don't see
how Bradley could have won 7 rounds in the match.
Pacquiao was the busier fighter and he landed more shots. Further, the
shots which he did land did more damage, as he clearly staggered
Bradley on several occasions. He seemed to be in control of the fight,
and was dictating where and how it was taking place. This was so much
the case that he appeared to coast for a few rounds - a mistake in
hindsight, but something which appeared to be a comfortable, risk-free
choice at the time.
Bradley was certainly game, and proved any remaining critics wrong. He
displayed a fantastic chin, and true heart and grit, along with
unending warrior instincts. He also did some great body work in the
fight. That said, none of that should have been enough for him to get
the verdict.
With the win, Bradley unseats one of the best pound for pound fighters
in the world, takes home his title belt, and retains his undefeated
record with by far the biggest win and biggest moment of his career.
He now controls his own destiny as well. A rematch with Pacquiao - one
which he predicted and promoted before this first fight ever even took
place - will now be likely for November. Potential other major fights
include dates with Floyd Mayweather or Amir Khan. But after this win, he certainly gets to call the shots.
The sad thing is that the Pacquiao vs. Bradley results are not even
the most controversial of the year thus far. There are at least two
other fights - Brandon Rios
vs. Richard Abril and Tavoris Cloud vs. Gabriel Campillo - which
produced even worse verdicts than this. But that just goes to show you
how bad things have gotten in boxing these days.
