By Robert Brown – This past weekend we had the 147lb battle between undefeated rising American super star Timothy Bradley and 8 time world champion and premier P4P king Manny Pacquiao.
Most experts thought that this match up would be competitive, but in the end Pacquiao would just be too strong and over power a very spirited Timothy Bradley. Before the fight HBO’s Harold Lederman stated that he had some reservations about 1 judge in particular that was selected for this fight “CJ Ross”, Lederman thought that this judge had given some incorrect score cards in the past and may be to influenced by crowd reactions and therefor felt that this judge was too inexperienced for this assignment and appeared to be uncomfortable with her selection, however Lederman was quiet comfortable with the other two selections Duane Ford and Jerry Roth because they were experienced judges who had been judging for decades. I myself personally had some reservations about Jerry Roth, because he was involved in the extremely controversial Rios Vs Abril fight in which he gave an incorrect score card and was also involved in the famous De la Hoya Vs Trinidad title fight, where he unbelievably gave the fight to Trinidad, so every time I hear Jerry Roth’s name called out as a judge in a big fight, the words “oh no” go through my head.
The fight began and it appeared that it was going to be an easy night for Pacquiao, he was backing Bradley up and he appeared to be landing straight left hands down the pipe with monotonous regularity, the only issue that Pacquiao seemed to have was that he seems to have lost the ability to continually put his foot on the gas and throw 4 5 6 multiple punch combinations since the Margarito fight, but even in the rounds he appeared to be coasting, he would throw 30 second flurries to take the rounds, by anyone’s estimations this was not a difficult fight to judge, my flat mate who is not a boxing fan at all watched the fight with me and clearly gave the fight to Pacquiao.
With what’s happened in boxing over the past 12 months you’re always holding your breath when score cards start to be read. When the first score card 115/113 came out I was shocked and when the other score cards were read out and you heard the words and the “new”, a state of shock came over my entire body and I turned around and screamed out “how could this happen”, after 30 seconds of gathering myself I turned around to my flat mate and said these words “Bob’s done this” meaning “Bob Arum” CEO and head of Top Rank Boxing.
It is my opinion that Bob Arum has orchestrated this fascicle result between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley, and I will state that this is my opinion and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the owners of Eastside Boxing or anyone else associated with the web site.
It is my personal opinion that Bob Arum setup the result to avoid any possible chance of a super fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.The re-match can be organised, Pacquiao can win his belt back and retire, and Bob Arum can have his next cash cow in Timothy Bradley, who he can market as beating Pacquiao this way he can avoid paying Mayweather a dollar and still make a ton of money in the re-match between Pacquaio and Bradley and keep all the money in house plus setup all his future earnings which is what Bob Arum likes to do, even strength and conditioning coach of Pacquiao “Alex Ariza” has stated previously in public interviews that Bob Arum is greedy, hates Mayweather and does not want Mayweather to make a dollar, plus Arum has changed his position multiple times on the fight making it more difficult each time.
First there was argument over the split, then there were arguments over the dates, then there were arguments over the venues and on and on it went. In no way am I saying that Bob Arum was the only party making this fight difficult but it is my belief that he strongly was against the fight taking place and would look for any way out that appeared to be legitimate.
Bob Arum has stated in the last day or so that he was appalled at the decision and wants an official investigation, to my way of thinking this is a tactical response to the public outrage and to make himself look like an innocent party, I realise there are people out there that are going to accuse me of attacking boxing and giving boxing a bad name, the truth of the matter is I don’t have to, boxing is doing it to itself, I love the sport of boxing and that is why I have decided to have the courage to risk my career and write this piece exposing possible corruption in the sport of boxing, I am well aware that Bob Arum is not the only promoter to possibly engage in this type of suspicious activity, however as a community we cannot stick our heads in the sand and just say “oh well that’s boxing”, I will now real off the terrible decisions just in the past few months; Williams Vs Lara, Cloud Vs Campillo and Rios Vs Abril those are just the terrible ones not forgetting Marquez Vs Pacquiao 3.
In closing I believe an integrity commission needs to be established separate from the state athletic commissions and the alphabet organisations to investigate possible corrupt dealings and elite panels of judges and referee’s need to be established, this is the only way boxing can save its reputation and save itself. It also appears that an investigation will be launched into the judgers by the attorney general at the request of Bob Arum let’s hope it is genuine and not a dog and pony show to stave off the angry herds. And we get concrete results.