By Lester Salvador
It’s another travesty in boxing when Manny Pacquiao receives a gift decision just so he could retire with a win.
Where is the justice or the outcry when Timothy Bradley clearly outboxed Pacquiao and both those knockdowns shouldn’t be counted, they were more slips or Bradley losing his footing.
From the start of the fight it was Bradley controlling the distance and using a range finder jab, Pacquiao would just use head movement and feints and lunge at times to try and touch Bradley but missed. Bradley was throwing so many pity pat jabs and yes those count, as long as they touch the skin of the opposing fighter they are points. This is boxing, you don’t need to win a fight by KO, you can also win on points. Boxing is hit and not get hit.
Manny only had a few good shots and Bradley took every shot like they were nothing. What I saw in the fight was Pacquiao being cautious to throw punches, he couldn’t pull the trigger but I guess moving your head and trying to make a Bradley flinch scores points over actual punches landed. Bradley used ring generalship to control Manny just like he did in the first fight.
Pacquiao is so loved that people will blindly root for him and overlook all the good work Bradley and Teddy Atlas have done. Atlas came with a great game plan to beat Manny, just fight off the back foot and catch Manny coming in and rough him up from time to time to mix it up and keep him guessing.
The crowd was so biased and the commentators as well. If HBO shows a rebroadcast of Pacquiao vs. Bradley, I strongly suggest that people re-watch it in slow motion and turn the sound off and just try to be fair when scoring it.
The only good thing that came from this fight is Manny Pacquiao finally retiring and his rabid fanbase finally disappearing from boxing.
I love the sweet science of boxing and enjoy sharing my opinion on it. Boricua!