By Vitali Shaposhnikov: Despite looking less than impressive and not at all as accurate as he used to be, Manny Pacquiao got robbed of a well deserved and definitely obvious victory.
I like Timothy Bradley, and was awed by his performance against the powerhouse that Pacquiao is. The way Bradley was able to recover and fight back in the later rounds showed amazing determination and heart. If anyone deserved to look great and competitive against Manny, it was Timothy Bradley this past Saturday night.
Still, it seems as though the judges missed this one by a mile. Not only was Pacquiao the aggressor, he was also visibly controlling the fight. As a matter of fact, now that we know the numbers, we can see that Pacquiao out-landed Bradley in every punch category, with a much higher accuracy percentage.
The majority of the boxing community was appalled when this decision was announced, and for a good reason. Pacquiao and his team were of course sure that they had won the fight, but they did not try and take the win away from Bradley by belittling his performance.
The decision of the bout needs to be reviewed and reversed for the sake of the sport. The wrong verdict is obvious and will hurt the credibility and structural integrity of boxing. Boxing needs to stay as honest as possible, but that would be impossible to achieve with such in-your-face mistakes.
Unfortunately, Keith Kizer, the executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, stated that as of now, there are no plants to review the Pacquiao-Bradley judges. (http://www.fightnews.com/Boxing/more-pacquiao-bradley-fallout-118049) I am hoping that someone takes the initiative and pushes this issue further down the pipeline. Team Pacquiao along with Bob Arum are likely already in the process of pursuing the reversal of the decision, and with the public support of this issue, maybe Mr. Kizer will reconsider his decision, and take a look at the numbers that prove Pacquiao’s victory.
Mr. Keith Kizer, Executive Director.
Nevada Athletic Commission.
555 East Washington Avenue, Suite 3200.
Las Vegas, NV 89101-1098.
702-486-2582
kkizer@boxing.nv.gov