The Pacquiao-Bradley Fight

          
Last Saturday night, a boxing match between Emmanuel "Manny" Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley happened in Las Vegas. The start of the match was delayed because of Manny Pacquiao's refusal to play until the Heat/Celtics Game 7 was over. Later, at 12:10 A.M. eastern time, the bout started, a hugfest that lasted 12 rounds. After the match, a split decision happened, and Timothy Bradley won the belt, 115-113. Many people questioned the decision because of Manny's stats.
          
Manny had landed 100 punches more than Bradley did and landed 34% of the time while Bradley landed only 19%. WBO President Francisco ''Paco'' Valcarcel said in a statement Wednesday that the WBO's championship committee will review video of the fight with five ''recognized international judges'' and make a recommendation. He said the WBO does not doubt the ability of the scoring judges.


Most reporters seated ringside and the vast majority of fans inside the MGM Grand arena on Saturday night thought Pacquiao had easily defended his welterweight title against Bradley.


The first surprise came when ring announcer Michael Buffer announced that there was a split decision, and the biggest surprise came in the reading of the scores. Jerry Roth had it 115-113 for Pacquiao, while judges Duane Ford and C.J. Ross had it for Bradley by the same score.


The Associated Press scored the fight 117-111 for Pacquiao.

Besides the people who think Manny won are the people who believe that the fight was actually set up by both contenders to benefit from the bout and a possible rematch. Bradley was already talking about a rematch weeks before the actual fight, so this would count as further proof. Other people would argue this by stating that known boxers like Manny would have their schedule set months in advance, so knowing about a possible rematch would not be strange at all.


So, was there ever any funny business going on in the planning of the match? Was the ruling of the bout just plain bad? Or did Bradley just deserve to win that fight?


Maybe the rematch will tell....