Bob Arum is a crook, but he is an intelligent one.
He knew after some of his comments at the post fight press conference, that he might have been a little too giddy about how much money he would make off a Pacquiao vs. Bradley rematch.
So, after he has had time to think it over, Arum says no rematch until…………
Due to the uproar of media and public since the fight, promoter Bob Arum says he will not allow a Pacquiao-Bradley rematch until the Nevada attorney general, Catherine Cortez Masto, initiates an investigation.
“I want to investigate whether there was any undue influence, whether the (Nevada Athletic Commission) gave any particular instruction and how they came to this conclusion,” said Arum, who at the post-fight news conference was adamant the result was a mistake but not the result of any chicanery. “But the whole sport is in an uproar. People are going crazy.
“If this was a subjective view that each of [the judges] honestly held, OK. I would still disagree, but then we’re off the hook in terms of there being no conspiracy. But there needs to be an independent investigation because it strains credulity that an event everybody saw as so one-sided one way all three judges saw it as close. It strains credulity.”
There is nothing that an investigation will show except that the judges saw things differently than 99% of the population.
One of the judges Duane Ford decided to speak out on what he saw during the fight.
“In pro boxing, you look for damage, and if the punches are equal and the damage is equal, you are looking for effective aggression, and that does not necessarily mean the guy going forward,” Ford said. “Effective aggression can be a guy going back. And then you look at ring generalship, and that’s all about control.
“When you score a fight of that magnitude, you know the criticism comes with the job. But unless you are totally focused on that scoring zone for three minutes, it’s impossible to score the fight correctly. I know you can’t do it talking into a microphone. It was a close fight in my mind that could have gone either way. The result was nothing more than three judges giving an honest opinion, and nothing other than that.”
“If this were American Idol, without a doubt, Manny Pacquiao would have won,” Ford said. “But it was not. I gave an honest opinion. I had Pacquiao up 4-2, I think, at the end of six rounds. I thought he hurt Bradley a couple of times early in the fight. But when the bell rang to end that round, it was over and what happens in one round doesn’t carry over to the next round. They’re separate units.
“In the second half of the fight, Pacquiao picked off a lot of punches to the head, but Bradley landed some hard body shots. That hurt Pacquiao. I don’t mean it hurt him in the sense of it physically hurting him, but in terms of scoring and piling up points. Bradley did an excellent job standing his ground as a boxer. Remember, it’s a boxing match and Bradley demonstrated his ability to box expertly.”
In general, Mr. Ford is correct.
You judge round by round and there shouldn’t be a carry over even if a guy is hurt. The only problem with that is most people who score fights, do that. Only casual fans just make a judgment once the fight is over.
Pacquiao definitely let his foot off the gas in the last three rounds when he thought he had the fight wrapped up and that proved to be a critical mistake. It is one that Juan Manual Marquez learned in his last fight with Pacquiao.
Bradley threw more punches, but Pacquiao connected more. He also connected and threw more power punches. It wasn’t like he did so in just one or two rounds, to skew the numbers. He consistently round after round connected with the cleaner harder punches.
I don’t throw around the word “robbery” around a lot. Juan Manual Marquez didn’t get robbed. I had him winning the 3rd fight against Pacquiao 115-113, that is a close fight that could go have went either way.
But what happened to Pacquiao was a clear robbery, maybe not the greatest of all time, but definitely one of the biggest high profile robberies in the new age of social media.
Bob Arum is blowing a lot of smoke and look for Pacquiao and Bradley to be back in the ring November 10th.
H/T CosbySweaters for the quotes