WBO to Review Pacquiao vs. Bradley Robbery

I give this poster 10-9 to Bradley for giving Manny Pacquiao a graphic design lesson.

By now you’ve all heard or seen Timothy Bradley’s “win” over Manny Pacquiao from last Saturday. There have been calls and accusations of a fix and plain ol’ judging incompetence. In fact, other than Duane Ford and CJ Ross, only 10 people out of 265 from various media members, boxing sites, and notable fan forums actually gave Bradley the decision. Well the WBO announced today they will “review” the controversial fight even though any knowledgeable boxing fan knows it will amount to nothing.

WBO President Francisco “Paco” Valcarcel said in a statement Wednesday that the WBO’s championship committee will review video of the fight with five “recognized international judges” and make a recommendation. He said the WBO does not doubt the ability of the scoring judges.

Most reporters seated ringside and the vast majority of fans inside the MGM Grand arena on Saturday night thought Pacquiao had easily defended his welterweight title against Bradley.

The first surprise came when ring announcer Michael Buffer announced that there was a split decision, and the biggest surprise came in the reading of the scores. Jerry Roth had it 115-113 for Pacquiao, while judges Duane Ford and C.J. Ross had it for Bradley by the same score.

The Associated Press scored the fight 117-111 for Pacquiao.

“The public saw the fight and they’re outraged, and we need clarity here,” Arum told the Associated Press on Wednesday. “We need those responsible to investigate, to see what happened, how the judges could be so off.

“Was there any funny business going on? Or no funny business? Did they have a conversation with each other?” Arum asked. “We need to get clarity. The public is demanding it.”

Arum’s powerful promotional company, Top Rank, has staged thousands of fights over more than four decades, including some of the most significant in the history of the sport.

He said that the scoring of Saturday night’s fight was among the worst he’s ever seen.

“It puts boxing in a very horrible light,” he said. “I’m looking for the sport to do damage control, and the only way it does damage control is if you do a full and complete investigation.”

This is simply a review and nothing more. Five judges who weren’t at the fight will score it themselves and submit their cards on Monday. There will be no overturn, no stripping of Bradley’s welterweight belt (and there shouldn’t be), and probably no consequences for Ford and Ross for this mess.

Speaking of Ford….

Duane Ford was interviewed and gave his reasons for pulling 7 rounds out of his ass to give to Bradley … and OH BOY is it a doozy.

“I thought Bradley gave Pacquiao a boxing lesson,” Ford said. “I thought a lot of the rounds were close. Pacquiao missed a lot of punches and I thought he was throwing wildly.”

Bold emphasis is mine. “Pacquiao missed a lot of punches” is about as inaccurate a statement as one could possibly make. According to CompuBox numbers, Pacquiao landed 34% of his total punches and 38% of his power punches. Bradley landed only 19% of his total shots and 28% of his power punches. So whatever boxing lesson Pacquiao was given was a bad one, as Bradley missed 680 of 839 punches and was outlanded in all but two rounds.

Now let me make this clear, I watched the fight on Sunday, with no HBO commentary (I had Russian announcers), and scored it 116-112 Pacquiao. I gave Bradley rounds 1, 6, 10, and 12. It was not the total wipeout Harold Lederman somehow had on his scorecard for HBO, but under no circumstances did Timothy Bradley win more than 4 rounds. This was a clear as day robbery and in this case I think the statistics prove the case for Manny Pacquiao. Bradley is not a powerful puncher, he’s not a knockout artist (he’s now 28-0 with 13 KOs), so the few shots he landed never fazed Pacquiao at any point. Pacquiao had Bradley hurt three times in my book, most notably a left hook to the chin that staggered him in the 5th. Of course, Bradley somehow got the nod on two of the scorecards at ringside having landed just 8 of 68 punches.

I have paid less and less attention to modern-day boxing because of these shenanigans and honestly I can’t see how Duane Ford and CJ Ross can get another major title fight after this debacle. The rematch is scheduled for November per Pacquiao’s contract (to squash the conspirators, Pacquiao and Mayweather pretty much always have this), and hopefully it’s as far away from Las Vegas as humanly possible and out of the hands of the Nevada and Texas athletic commissions, because frankly speaking they bungle things way too often.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. Absolutely Did the Right Thing

I couldn’t let this slide by. Plus, the Seahawks might have killed off my enjoyment for football.

All Hail Manny Pacquiao

Antonio Margarito dismantled Miguel Cotto last year. Turns out there’s a chance he had plasters in his gloves.

Manny Pacquiao, to our knowledge, didn’t have plaster or any illegal substances in his gloves. He moved up in weight to fight a top-tier opponent yet again. The Filipino flat-out dominated his opponent while making the weight sacrifice. Again.

Pacquiao stopped 34-1 Miguel Cotto in the 12th round by TKO (ref stoppage) to win Cotto’s welterweight title. Several years ago he was a flyweight champion that nobody had even heard of.

Now he’s one of the biggest names in boxing and one of the all-time greats. To destroy Marco Antonio Barrera, Erik Morales (twice), Ricky Hatton, Oscar De La Hoya, and now Miguel Cotto (4 different weight classes here) is an amazing feat.

Miguel Cotto was bloodied, battered, cut and bruised. He was the beaten man and he wasn’t exactly terrible. The Puerto Rican caught Pacquiao with several combinations and Pac-man just walked through them. Cotto is one of the best punchers in boxing and he still couldn’t faze Pacquiao significantly. It was relatively even until…

Pacquiao knocked Cotto down twice. Once in the 3rd and once in the 4th. While Cotto wasn’t severely damaged Pacquiao was the superior boxer and started the takeover. He was winning the trades and flurries they exchanged.

The accumulation of punches was too much for Cotto and after 2 rounds of backpedalling for his life, he finally got bashed with a left hook to the head, and Kenny Bayless stopped it in the final round.

Only one thing left now, and it’s for Pacquiao to fight Floyd Mayweather in what would be one of the biggest fights boxing has ever had. Two of the sport’s greats have to face each other now. They just have to.

Great performance by Pacquiao, and kudos to Cotto for respecting Pac-man in the post-fight interview.

Jermain Taylor Gets KTFO. Again.

If any boxing fans are out there that are following the Super Six World Boxing Classic Super Middleweight Tournament then you probably ignored the idea of watching Arthur Abraham vs. Jermain Taylor on Showtime tape delay, and opted (like me) to watch on a decent online stream.

If you have boxing knowledge you know Arthur Abraham is a hard puncher and Jermain Taylor has no endurance or punching power to ever finish a fight (see Carl Froch and Kelly Pavlik I).

Just over 30 minutes ago Jermain Taylor was on his way to a loss to Abraham in Berlin, Germany. He started off well from round 1-4 and once again faded in the end. He was deducted one point for excessive low blows in round 6 (I think). Abraham took over from there, hitting Taylor with just about everything, and then delivered a straight right hand with seconds remaining in the final round to stiffen Taylor.

The Armenian-born Abraham, not known for his straight punching, became the 3rd guy to KTFO the former middleweight champion Taylor.

Jermain was on his back, stiffened, right arm stuck in the air and out cold for at least two minutes. It’s his 4th loss in 5 fights and you have to wonder based on his effort from the last few rounds alone if he should even continue in this tournament.

Taylor has proven time and time again in the span of over a year that he will never be a contender again. He is DONE. As of today, he’s officially a doormat for any good fighter from middleweight to super-middleweight with moderate-to-great punching power.

Go make a plea to all of the Athletic Commissions in the world and bar him from fighting for his own good. He’s going to get serious brain damage with the punishment he takes.

For Abraham….nice way to get the bonus KO point to go with your two points for winning. That shot gives me chills.

Later tonight there will be updates of Carl Froch (who knocked Taylor out in the final round earlier this year) vs. Andre Dirrell.

VIDEO OF THE DAY: Remembering Arturo “Thunder” Gatti

I’m sure by now many of you have heard about the stunning and tragic death of boxing great, Arturo “Thunder” Gatti. Brazilian police are treating this as a murder with his 23 year old wife already detained.

This is by no means a platform to talk about the horrendous crime and apparent events leading up to it. Instead, it’s to remember a boxer that left his heart out there every time he was in the ring.

A record of 40-9 with 31 KOs, Gatti was the IBF super featherweight champion in the 1990s before vacating the title to move up to lightweight. His final stint as world champion was as WBC super lightweight titleholder, until a vicious beating at the hands of Floyd Mayweather Jr. started the downfall of a warrior.

Despite all of that, Gatti was one of the greatest and gutsiest fighters ever to grace the presence of a boxing ring. His trilogy with Micky Ward symbolized and epitomized everything about Arturo the fighter. He fought with one hand for much of the 3rd bout with Ward, but he never gave up, he never quit, and prevailed over Ward for the 2nd time in a row.

It was a tragedy in itself that he took so much punishment during the latter stages of his career to guys like Carlos Baldomir and Alfonso Gomez Jr., both whom have always had little punching power. He had to retire to prevent further damage because the wear and tear on his face was showing. His skills were eroded even though his heart and effort was still there.

I will certainly miss Arturo Gatti. And I’m sure the entire boxing community and fans alike will as well.

The video of the day is a compilation of just some of his greatest moments.

Gus Johnson’s Excitement Finally Released

I will, with no hesitation, say that Gus Johnson, the staple of March Madness on CBS, was not good at all last month. He was dragging the last syllable of every word and not even making blowout games sound exciting. When doctors feared that his excitement and enthusiasm would build up and damage his vocal cords for life, the final round of Carl Froch vs. Jermain Taylor saved him. With Taylor up 106-102 on the scorecards of two of the three judges, the only way he could lose is if he was knocked out or knocked down multiple times. Taylor had his chances to finish off the unbeaten super middleweight champion, knocking Froch down in the 3rd round. It was the first time that Froch had ever been knocked down. Like his first fight against Kelly Pavlik, Taylor faded as the fight wore on. After the jump, round 12 is Gus time (fast forward to 1:52 for the beginning of the final round).