Jobbed: Manny Pacquiao Loses Split Decision To Timothy Bradley

Following Timothy Bradley’s controversial split-decision win over Manny Pacquiao on June 9, the World Boxing Organization hired five independent judges to review the fight. After review, all five judges thought Pacquiao won the fight.

Of the hired five judges, one scored the fight 118-110 while two had it 117-111. Another judge scored it 116-112 for Pacquiao with the fifth scoring it 115-113.

The WBO announced Wednesday that it will review the controversial title fight between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley. Bradley won the fight last Saturday in a split decision that many outside of the ringside judges would have given to Pacquiao. WBO president Francisco “Paco” Valcarcel said in his statement that the WBO’s championship committee will look at the tape with five “recognized international judges” and make a recommendation.

Bradley won, 115-113, on two scorecards, while losing on the third. The decision was not well-received by the crowd, nor by the media. Promoter Bob Arum has already taken the match to the Nevada State Athletic Commission for review.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission will review Tim Bradley’s split-decision victory over Manny Pacquiao due to the controversy and outrage it has engendered since Saturday. However, don’t expect much to come of it. Executive director Keith Kizer merely wants the judges to give verbiage to their scoring decisions (via RingTV):

Kizer went on to say that he wants the judges to explain how close the rounds were in their minds and what standard they used to assign a round to a particular boxer. But don’t expect these reviews with the three judges to occur rapidly. Kizer believes he’ll need the rest of the month to get them to come down and individually examine their scores.

To exist as a boxing fan is to exist in a perpetual state of defensiveness. Was Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley a terrible decision and a fight where the word “robbery” can be applied without the slightest bit of overreaction? Absolutely. But it certainly stung to see things like “#RIPBoxing” trend in the wake of the fight.

The “boxing is dead” drum is one that is beat loudly and often because it’s an easier instrument to play than “boxing still pulls decent ratings but is clearly down from where it was as recently as Lennox Lewis vs. Vitali Klitschko, and is also very healthy on the international level.”

The surprising and controversial result of Saturday night’s welterweight title fight -- a split decision victory for Timothy Bradley against Manny Pacquiao -- stunned and angered boxing fans and experts alike.

In the aftermath, there appear to be two major takeaways. No. 1: Manny Pacquiao deserved to win. No. 2: The dream of Pacquiao-Mayweather will never be the same.

Almost immediately after the robbery on last night’s HBO pay-per-view awarding Timothy Bradley a split decision win over Manny Pacquiao, photos began to circulate of a poster for the rematch between the two supposedly “printed weeks before the fight.”

This was proof enough of a fix for some. After all, it’s already got a date set? And tickets are on sale?

Timothy Bradley defeated Manny Pacquiao in a stunning split decision on Saturday night in Las Vegas. There was an instant outcry as soon as Bradley was announced the winner. Even Bradley was stunned by the outcome. Pacquiao generally kept his composure in the ring and went through the formality of the post-fight interview without much controversy.

After departing the ring, Pacquiao spoke with ESPN’s Bernardo Osuna and was much more distraught and mystified by the judges’ decision. SB Nation’s Bad Left Hook transcribed the interview in which Manny clearly indicated that the decision blindsided him:

Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley put on a fairly entertaining battle last night on HBO pay-per-view, but the quality of the fight is not going to be what anyone remembers about the night. Instead, the focus will be on the bizarre, indefensible split decision that was gifted to Bradley after a fight Pacquiao seemed to clearly win.

Reaction around the combat sports landscape has been extreme. Let’s take a look at some of the shock, anger and frustration shown by boxing writers on Twitter:

Manny Pacquiao was robbed in his fight against Timothy Bradley last night on HBO pay-per-view as Bradley took an indefensible split decision. Given boxing’s history of bizarre — and even downright corrupt — decisions, it didn’t exactly take long for the conspiracy theories to start flying.

The conspiracy theories ranged from people sharing pictures of posters for Pacquiao vs. Bradley 2 — proof, they said, that the rematch was already “planned” — to people saying Floyd Mayweather paid off the judges so he wouldn’t have to face Manny, to more intricate situations involving contracts and money.

The morning after a robbery in boxing, usually things don’t seem quite so bad. That’s not really the case today as no one seems able to quite come to grips with the fact that Manny Pacquiao had a clear win stolen from him.

Luke Thomas, SB Nation’s senior editor of combat sports, discussed the events of last night in a video:

Bob Arum isn’t the kind of guy who keeps his mouth shut, not when he’s happy, not when he’s upset and certainly not when his top drawing star loses by controversial decision. And that’s exactly what happened to Bob tonight in Las Vegas when Manny Pacquiao was robbed of his deserved victory over Timothy Bradley.

Bad Left Hook points us in the direction of a few tweets that express just how upset Arum (who says he had the fight 10 rounds to 2 for Manny) is about the way things went down:

The sports world is going to be talking about Timothy Bradley’s controversial split decision win over Manny Pacquiao for quite some time. It was a fight that was so controversial that it will probably require multiple re-watches just to try to put yourself into specific mindsets to see if you can think like the judges that scored the bout for Tim Bradley. I don’t suspect you’ll have much luck, however, as the punch stats and action appear to quite clearly favor Manny Pacquiao.

Before going back and rewatching the entire fight, start by giving these highlights of the action a watch.

With two rounds left in their clash, Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley came out for round eleven with the outcome seemingly already in hand. Pacquiao was just a higher class then the very talented and very game Bradley.

Still, Tim is a warrior and came forward through the round, trying to see if he couldn’t make something happen.

In round ten of the HBO pay-per-view bout between Timothy Bradley and Manny Pacquiao, it was Manny pulling away with the fight.

Bradley’s arms looked a bit more weary as the fight has been wearing on, taking even more steam off his already “soft” punches. While he was still willing to fire punches, including a few hard left hooks, it was Manny picking his spots to engage and land some more of those straight left hands.

With things winding down for Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley in their HBO pay-per-view bout, the two men came out of their corners for the ninth round. Pacquiao quickly landed a hard straight left hand, the punch that had been most effective for him to this point in the bout.

Bradley continued to try to circle and pick his spots to engage with hard flurries but Manny landed a few heavy combination punches. Bradley responded with a hard combination of his own, but then it was all Manny again. Bradley kept throwing and was actually having some success again this round, mixing in a few more left hook leads and a couple uppercuts.

In round eight of the HBO pay-per-view bout between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley, it was Bradley getting into “needs a miracle” territory.

He came out looking to work the jab initially, with Manny walking forward, stalking much the same as he had through the rest of the fight.

The seventh round of the HBO pay-per-view main event between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley got underway with Bradley clearly losing on the cards but gutting it out trying to make something happen.

Bradley went hard to the body early, but hasn’t done it enough to really have the body shots add up. Bradley now gets going with a nice combination but, and I keep saying it, his power isn’t good enough to back Pacquiao up. Manny is back to stalking and now he is blasting him. Bradley is eating shots and firing back.

As the fight between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley hit the sixth round, it was becoming clear that it’s unlikely that Bradley had anything that would tilt the fight back in his favor. Manny appeared the faster boxer and the harder hitter, leaving Bradley to engage in firefights that he could not get the better of.

Bradley did manage to land a hard left hand about a minute into the round, but it looked like it barely phased Pacquiao.

Round five of the bout between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley saw Bradley coming out of his corner where he appeared to say something about a foot or ankle injury. He’d just lost a big round four but gave a big effort anyway.

It’s fallen into more of a rinse and repeat pattern with Pacquiao opening up with the hard straight left hands, Bradley firing back but not having the power to keep Manny away.

In round four of the bout between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley the two men were falling into a rhythm. Bradley was fighting with everything he had, but Pacquiao’s hard left hands were keeping Bradley at bay. Suddenly both men engaged in a brawl, firing hard shots back and forth before Pacquiao came over a body shot with a right hook.

Bradley is trying to mix in body work with the combinations upstairs and tried to get inside to fight at a closer distance. Pacquiao landed a very hard flurry of shots that had Bradley hurt with his legs wobbling.

As the bout between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley hit the third round, it was clear that Manny was in control.

Bradley landed a left hand early, but Manny’s power shots were still getting in with a fair bit of regularity and the left hand of Pacquiao was the big punch of the fight. The left landed a few more times and Bradley did a little showboating to try to prove that he wasn’t hurt and fired back, but with the way the round went it looks like Bradley is down three rounds after three.

In the second round of the bout between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley, Bradley was caught again by a straight left hand early, the same punch that Manny had done good work with at the end of the first round. After another, Bradley clinched up and landed a lot of punches in the clinch to the head and body.

Pacquiao was able to land the left hand again and it was clear that this was going to be the punch that decided the bout. Manny was clipped by a flurry from Bradley, but then launched his own return shot that backed Bradley off.

The HBO pay-per-view main event between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley got underway after all the dramatics surrounding the delay with both men knowing the first round could set the tone for the entire fight. Both men showed the jab early, with Manny looking to go to the body on occasion.

Bradley was able to land a hard right hand at one point but Pacquiao came back hard with another body shot. Bradley was able to keep his guard up and pick off punches to the head by Pacquiao and Bradley came in with a combination, punctuated with a hard body shot.

When the Jorge Arce vs. Jesus Rojas fight ended early on the Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley undercard, HBO appeared ready to go right into the Pacquiao vs. Bradley bout. After a brief tribute to recently paralyzed boxer Paul Williams and recently deceased Johnny Tapia, HBO suddenly said they were having to delay as the fighters weren’t ready.

Then the drama kicked in...

In the final undercard bout on the Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley pay-per-view, the crowd-pleasing Jorge Arce took on Jesus Rojas.

Arce landed a left hook just 17 seconds into the bout that knocked Rojas down. Rojas was able to get up and they went back to brawling, but Arce’s body work was setting up shots to his opponent’s head. Rojas only knows how to fight one way and that’s coming forward, so he pressed Arce after getting to his feet, creating a tremendous action round. Rojas actually ended up having a very good round and likely would have won it had he not suffered the early knockdown.