cardsfansince82 wrote:Teddy Atlas completely trashed the decision, straight up called it rigged. Some of the comments I've seen had Bradley winning at most one round. I'd really like to see it too if you find a link.
I love Teddy Atlas.
Didn't see the fight, but everything I've heard has said it's a bad deal. I enjoy the sport, but more and more I find myself enjoying the lesser fights - the ESPN Friday Night fights often feature some excellent fights and rarely is there any bull associated with them like this. Just so much crap.
This sounds far-fetched — and it is — but not much more far-fetched than the possibility that three professional judges who also happen to be human beings with eyeballs connected to optic nerves connected to non-lobotomized brains could watch that fight and believe that Bradley won. Or that it was even just a close victory for Pacquiao. There didn't seem to be a single reporter on press row who gave the fight to Bradley, and if there was, he or she must have been too ashamed to admit it. I overheard HBO boxing analyst Max Kellerman saying he scored it eight rounds to four for Pacquiao, and that he thought doing so was being generous to Bradley. Ten rounds to two, nine to three, and even 11 to one in favor of Pacquiao were more common spreads among journalists who covered the fight. So when people tried to understand why Pacquiao lost a fight where he landed 82 more power punches than Bradley and 12 more jabs while connecting on a much higher percentage of his blows, it's no surprise that foul play came immediately to mind. Anyone who searched for a rational explanation for this result was bound to come up empty. After that, what's left but whatever cloak-and-dagger machinations you care to imagine in a sport controlled by a handful of powerful promoters with varying agendas and overseen by a patchwork of ineffectual state athletic commissions?
It was definitely a bad decision but I don't get why it would be rigged, wouldn't boxing want Pacquaio to continue winning since him and Mayweather are boxings biggest PPV draws?
JoeMcKim wrote:It was definitely a bad decision but I don't get why it would be rigged, wouldn't boxing want Pacquaio to continue winning since him and Mayweather are boxings biggest PPV draws?
Loads of money on a rematch that Pacquaio suddenly has a major incentive to agree to?
JoeMcKim wrote:It was definitely a bad decision but I don't get why it would be rigged, wouldn't boxing want Pacquaio to continue winning since him and Mayweather are boxings biggest PPV draws?
The rematch between Pacquaio and Bradley would/will bring huge bucks and stir up some conversation around boxing. When Pacquaio wins the rematch he's set up for the Mayweather fight after.
Had he won and they tried setting up the Mayweather fight next there'd likely be less buzz around boxing/Pacquaio than there is no. No publicity is bad publicity..
I don't know if this was supposed to be a funny article, but it cracked me up. I got to watch the mayweather/maidana fight Saturday night. And, it was awesome. Last time I saw a Mayweather fight, I was the guy the writer of the article alluded to saying "just go put him in a corner and beat him up". So, this fight was very fulfilling in that regard.
There is, for example, a punch in boxing known as an overhand right. It's a legitimate punch. A boxing trainer will teach it to you, telling you to bend left and let the right hand loop high, rather than straight, and bring it down on your opponent's head. This is a punch that exists in the Official Handbook of Boxing Punches. It is a risk, because it carries great power but is slow and could leave you off balance should it miss, so it should be deployed only as a finisher on an opponent who is already weakened. It's a strong tool with equally strong drawbacks which demands strategic use.
Marcos Maidana's version of this punch—in a bout against Floyd Mayweather, the world's single greatest boxer, a man who is undefeated and considered close to unbeatable—is just to run up in the very first round and throw the hell out of what can only be called "an overhand right" in the most approximate sense of the term, because Maidana reaches all the way up to heaven and just throws his hand downward with great force, with no deception or defensive positioning or, really, elegance. He just throws the hell out of it like an angry little kid who's been lured into a boxing gym as an outlet for his inner rage, and handed a pair of boxing gloves, and told to give it whirl.
