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.
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