WBO JUDGES PANEL DECIDES PACQUIAO WON HANDILY

The five independent judges picked by the World Boxing Organization Championship Committee to review the tape of the Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley title fight on which Pacquiao lost his WBO welterweight title in a split decision that drew worldwide condemnation, has scored the fight overwhelmingly for Pacquiao. WBO president Francisco “Paco” Valcarcel forwarded a copy of the judges scorecards to the Manila Standard along with his letter to Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Keith Kizer in which he reiterated “there is no question of our respect and high regard for the official judges. Their integrity is not in question. However, it was decided that a review of the bout should take place with a panel of five confidential judges mainly to maintain impartiality.” Valcarcel noted that the instructions to the panel was to watch the tape without background commentary and to then vote after which the WBO analyzed the results. The panel of judges disagreed with the scoring of judges Duane Ford and Cynthia Ross who scored the fight for Bradley 115-113 while CJ Roth had Pacquiao the winner 115-113. Review judge No. 4 had Pacquiao winning by the widest margin of 118-110 while Judges 3 and 5 scored the fight 117-111 for Pacquiao. Judge No. 2 had Pacquiao the winner 116-112 which was the unofficial scorecard of the Manila Standard while Judge No.1 had it closest with Pacquiao winning 115-113 which tallied with the scorecard of official judge CJ Roth. A closer reading of the scorecards shows that all five review judges agreed unanimously that Pacquiao won rounds 1, 3, 5, 6 and 11 while all five agreed unanimously that Bradley won round 10. The judges voted 3-2 for Bradley in round 2, 4-1 for Pacquiao in round 4. 3-2 for Pacquiao in round 7, 4-1 for Pacquiao in round 8, 3-2 for Pacquiao in round 11 and 3-2 for Bradley in round 12. Valcarcel noted “the results speak for themselves.” Top Rank promoter told the Manila Standard that the investigation of the Nevada State Attorney General’s Office is being pursued as the Chief Investigator and the Deputy Chief Investigator visited him in his Las Vegas office on Wednesday morning and “questioned me about a lot of background things for over an hour.” Arum said they asked him whether he had any proof of criminality and he answered “none, absolutely none.” The Top Rank promoter agreed that the WBO findings means the NSAC needs a major revamp of the system and has to bring in some younger judges from a wider pool. “That goes without saying” said Arum. He said “the pool of officials is way too limited. They have to broaden it to include the best judges and referees from all over the world.” Boxing writer Steve Carp of the Las Vegas Review Journal reported that NSAC chairman Skip Avansino disclosed that under their system Kizer submits a pool of six names to the Commission from which the judgfes are selected. He also revealed that prior to the selection both fighters camps are asked if they have any objections and if there are none ( as was presumably the case in the Pacquiao-Bradley fight) Kizer gives his recommendations to the commission and they are usually approved unanimously. Carp said Kizer had revealed that the Attorney General’s Office had requested documents and tapes connected to the fight and that the Commission sent the information including the judges scorecards and the minutes of the May 21 meeting when they were selected. The NSAC chairman at the same time said the commission had no problem using judges from outside Nevada but would defer to Kizer on such decisions. Avansino said Kizer “is best suited to determine the capability of all officials he brings before us for recommendation.” Arum said that in view of all these developments that a rematch between Pacquiao and Bradley is out of the question for the moment “at least until we have some definitive statement that this occurred by judges error” and not anything else. Pacquiao himself told ABS-CBN News that while he welcomed and thanked the WBO for its decision which he said should serve as a lesson to the judges but that he is not planning any unilateral action and will leave the matter in the hands of the WBO. Pacquiao indicated he is still open to a rematch with Bradley but will discuss the matter with Arum when they meet in the second or third week of July. In his letter to Kizer, the WBO president said he would “respectfully suggest that more participation of duly registered and licensed officials by the Commission be pursued as this would create a better work environment. It is a way to explore the improvement of the sweet science.”

Manny Pacquiao judged a unanimous winner against Timothy Bradley by World Boxing Organisation panel

The World Boxing Organisation's five-man panel have rescored the controversial June 9 WBO welterweight title fight between Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley as a clear victory for the Filipino. 

  The result on June 9, a split decision by Nevada State Athletic Commission judging officials, gave Bradley 115-113 (twice) on a split points decision. The verdict caused uproar and drew condemnation from across the boxing world.

The five officials, from all over the world, sat down and viewed a video of the fight earlier this week. The 5-man WBO judging panel rescored the fight for Pacquiao, by a landslide. The scores were 115-111, 116-112, 117-111, 118-110, 117-111, essentially scoring eight or more rounds to the Filipino fighter.

The WBO will not be able to either overturn the official result, or hand back Pacquiao back the welterweight title. The NSAC, which has the power to overturn the decision, refused to hold an internal inquiry.

However, a rematch looks unlikely, with Bradley yesterday branding his own promoter Bob Arum "a liar", and calling out British light-welterweight Amir Khan for a contest. Arum has called on the Nevada State Attorney General to call an investigation into the manner of the judging.

DUANE FORD HURT HIS CREDIBILITY WITH EXPLANATION OF PACQUIAO VS. BRADLEY SCORING

It's Monday. Welcome back for another edition of Observe and Fight, The Boxing Observer's compilation of observations and random thoughts from the week that was in boxing. Get caught up on some of the most recent events you may have missed out on, including more Pacquiao vs. Bradley aftermath, the emergence of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., the future of Canelo Alvarez, and much more. Without further ado, check out the latest observations from The Boxing Observer. Judge Duane Ford's explanation of his scoring in Pacquiao vs. Bradley only hurt his credibility. During Ford's interview with Jim Lampley on "The Fight Game," Ford contradicted his own scorecard in the first 30 seconds of the interview. Ford scored the bout 115-113 for Bradley. That means he gave Bradley 7 of the 12 rounds. However, Ford himself stated, "What I personally saw that night is that the first 6 rounds, clearly Pacquiao was the winner. It was an exciting 6 rounds. But what I saw in the 4th round is that Pacquiao clearly won that. He hurt Bradley. But the Manny Pacquiao that I've judged in the past would have finished him. He let him off the hook. And then in the later rounds, I thought he (Pacquiao) tired; his punches were, were missing a bit. Bradley's punches were missing to the head, but Bradley was scoring. He was scoring well on the body." Where do I even begin? First of all, if he gave Pacquiao the first 6 rounds, at worst the fight should have been a draw. Next, what in the hell does it matter that Pacquiao didn't finish Bradley in the 4th round? Let's give Bradley some credit for exerting his will in the biggest prize fight of his career. I hope the Executive Director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, Keith Kizer, was watching that interview closely because it may be time to consider forcing Ford into early retirement. What was Jim Lampley doing when Ford was explaining himself to the millions of fans watching worldwide? Not to harp too much on Lampley, whom I believe does a very good job most of the time, but when he heard that explanation, and already knowing Ford gave 7 rounds to Bradley, why didn't Lampley push the issue? Were Lampley's producers in his ear talking to him while Ford was speaking? Maybe, but that is no excuse. If Ford was willing to come onto the show, live, he should have been ready to answer the tough questions. Lampley did not supply those questions, nor did he push the issue. It kind of made Lampley's Bryant Gumbel-esque speech at the end of the show a moot point because begging the fans for change only works if the person asking for the change leads by example. Starting today, we should put the debacle that was Pacquiao vs. Bradley behind us. Yes, it was an awful decision. Yes, it was magnified because it was Manny Pacquiao, who got screwed. However, if Timothy Bradley was the one who had dominated that fight, and then Bradley got screwed on the decision, the result would not be magnified quite as much. Bob Arum sure as hell wouldn't have been crying foul (which I still believe Arum had something to do with the decision) because his cash cow would have had his hand raised. The sports world wouldn't have stopped for the last week to talk about how corrupt boxing is or to say that the sport is dying. This decision was no worse than Paul Williams vs. Erislandy Lara, Tavoris Cloud vs. Gabriel Campillo, Brandon Rios vs. Richard Abril, and many other fights we have witnessed in the past (nobody better email me about Pacquiao vs. Marquez III because I had Pacquiao winning the fight the 1st time and scored it a draw the 2nd time I watched it). The fact remains that boxing will never die and this decision will be forgotten by boxing fans when the next poor decision comes to pass. Get over it! Top Rank is smart by trying to put together Pacquiao vs. Marquez IV, rather than a rematch of Pacquiao vs. Bradley. To be honest, I have no interest in seeing Pacquiao vs. Bradley again. I would watch Pacquiao vs. Marquez 50 times because the fight will always produce fireworks and will always produce great fights.

News Replay of Pacquiao vs. Bradley This Saturday Night on HBO; Viewers Can Cast Vote on Who Wins the Fight

HBO SPORTS® PRESENTS THE EXCLUSIVE REPLAY MANNY PACQUIAO VS. TIMOTHY BRADLEY, SATURDAY, JUNE 16 PLUS CHAVEZ JR. VS. LEE LIVE FROM EL PASO, TX 

It’s a special edition of WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING® when HBO Sports presents MANNY PACQUIAO VS. TIMOTHY BRADLEY, the exclusive replay of the world welterweight title fight, SATURDAY, JUNE 16 at 10:00 p.m. (ET/PT), exclusively on HBO. The HBO Sports team, which was ringside for the live coverage at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, calls all the action. The telecast will be available in HDTV.

In his first fight of 2012, carried live Saturday, June 9 on HBO Pay-Per-View®, Pacquiao put his 147-pound title on the line against undefeated challenger Timothy Bradley Jr. The hard-fought battle resulted in Bradley being awarded a split-decision victory, which triggered a hot debate over the three judges’ ringside scoring.

Viewers will be able to watch the fight from bell-to-bell, judge the action for themselves and cast their votes at the conclusion of the Pacquiao-Bradley replay by logging on to www.Facebook.com/HBOBoxing. HBO Sports will reveal the results later that evening during the previously announced WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING middleweight title showdown between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Andy Lee from El Paso (presented live ET/tape-delayed PT).

Other HBO playdates for both fights: June 17 (9:45 a.m.) and 18 (11:00 p.m.)

HBO2 playdates for both fights: June 17 (4:45 p.m.) and 19 (midnight)

Following the doubleheader, a new edition of “The Fight Game with Jim Lampley” debuts (midnight-12:30 a.m. live ET/tape-delayed PT) from the Sun Bowl in El Paso.

®WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING is a registered service mark of Home Box Office, Inc. 

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