Losing Faith in Boxing II – Pacquiao vs Bradley WBO Review Means Nothing


So the WBO review panel watched the Manny Pacuqiao – Timoth Bradley fight one more time, and unanimously decided that Manny Pacquiao should have won that fight, all giving him a unanimous decision victory. So what? It doesn’t change anything.

Because the WBO won’t overturn the ridiculous result by the Nevada judges. It won’t give the Welterweight title back to Manny Pacquiao. All it’s doing is ordering a rematch, which Timothy Bradley will have to accept (and his contractually obliged to) in order to keep his title belt. Oh, and pointing a finger at the Nevada State Athletic Commission about who and how they pick their ringside judges.

We can’t change the result but we did this review for two reasons. If they want to make a rematch, we will approve the rematch and if they don’t, we will order one. Also, we wanted to show that they could bring in other officials from outside of Nevada who can also do a fine job judging fights. It’s good to have different officials.

Was there something dirty going on? How could people watching the same fight, a fight nearly every expert and amateurish fan saw as a clear Pacquiao victory, although not as impressive as some earlier ones in his career, score this fight so differently?

We want to work together with Nevada and we think they should be open to other good officials from around the world. But we are not questioning the honorability of the judges who scored the fight for Bradley. They are honest people. They are good officials, too, but I don’t know what happened.

The problem with boxing is that rules and titles mean nothing. All that people care about is the money, and partially the legacy and staying undefeated. Bradley has a clause in the contract for his fight with Pacquiao that says he has to take a rematch in November because he won. Obviously Bradley wouldn’t mind. He made over $5 million from the June 9 fight, his biggest check ever. But Bob Arum isn’t so hot on a rematch anymore. He’s back to a fight he wanted for a long time to happen again.

Manny Pacquiao has beaten Juan Manuel Marquez twice, who claims to have been robbed on both times. The loser always says that, although in Marquez’ case, one of the greatest Mexican fighters of all time, he never got a real clear case. His fights with Pacquiao have always been too close to call in my opinion.

Since that fight, Marquez has gone back to Light Welterweight, winning the Interim WBO title and will defend it  next month against Al Sabaupan of the Philippines. Ever since his recent loss to Pacquiao, all the 38 year old has on his mind is revenge. Money as well, of course, but finally getting one over Pacquaio, who to many people clearly seems like he’s fading slowly into retirement.

Manny Pacquiao himself said he wants a rematch against Bradley, not Marquez. After three times, what is there left to prove? He’ll probably never get a convincing win over Marquez anyway. But it doesn’t only depend on him. There’s Bob Arum and the whole crew around him, maybe pushing him into other directions. Winning the title back isn’t what’s important here. It’s making as much money as possible before the curtain closes.

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