Boxing's Integrity Suffers Another Black Eye After Bradley-Pacquiao Split Decision

What’s that line from Forrest Gump? Stupid is as stupid does?

For a sport that is losing ground to MMA and UFC fighting, the only way to maintain integrity and respectability is to ensure fair play and fair assessment of play.

On Saturday night in Vegas, undefeated Timothy Bradley earned a split decision victory versus the much celebrated Manny Pacquiao. The fight scoring was 115-113 by all 3 judges, but 2 sided with Mr. Bradley while only one sided with Mr. Pacquiao.

Judging from experts and social media feedback, the official scoring was inconsistent with others’ perspectives:

- Yahoo! Sports scored the fight 117-111 for Pacquiao;

- Tim Dahlberg of the AP scored the fight 117-111 for Pacquiao;

- Steve Carp of the Las Vegas Review-Journal scored the fight 117-111 for Pacquiao;

- Dan Rafael of ESPN scored the fight 118-110 for Pacquiao;

- HBO’s Harold Lederman scored the fight 119-109 for Pacquiao.

Furthermore, live streaming feeds which I followed on Yahoo Sports and ESPN during and after the fight were overwhelmingly lopsided in favor of Pacquiao.

According to CompuBox, Pacquiao landed 34% of his punches compared to 19% for Bradley. Furthermore, Pacquiao landed 82 more power shots.

Unfortunately, it’s these sorts of results that make skeptics of us all. Make us wonder if someone within the sport thought they could drum up greater interest in a Pacquiao-Bradley rematch if Pacquiao lost the first bout. Seems far-fetched, but in light of the circumstances I wouldn’t blame anyone that draws this conclusion.

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