Jim Lampley and Lennox Lewis on Manny Pacquiao losing to Timothy Bradley:
Larry Merchant, Max Kellerman, and the late Emanuel Steward on Pacquiao’s less-than-stellar performances the past few fights and what should be next:
Dyan Castillejo on Pacquiao’s . . .
. . . washboard abs:
If you tell me right now that never in your life have you ever broken a promise, then let me tell you right back that you’re one big, fat, lying hypocrite.
Hell, everybody breaks a promise these days. Here are just a few examples of promises that are made to be broken: “I promise to clean my room,” “I promise to quit smoking,” “I promise to be productive at the office,” “I promise not to jack off every day,” “I promise to eat my vegetables,” “I promise to stop wasting my time on Facebook and Twitter,” “I promise to pay the rent on time this month,” “I promise to update this blog five times a week,” “I promise to fly to the Wild Card Gym on October 15.”
The last promise, in particular, is extremely hard to keep, especially if you are a very busy man like Congressman Manny Pacquiao. Initial reports had said that Pacquiao would leave for the Wild Card Gym on October 15. Obviously, though, that plan has been shelved because Pacquiao, as of this writing, is still in General Santos City until he, hopefully, finally leaves for Los Angeles on the 27th. Most recent reports state that Pacquiao, even though he opted to break his promise of leaving early for Freddie Roach’s gym because of personal matters, has been working his ass off at a gym in GenSan under the watchful eye of childhood friend and alternate trainer Buboy Fernandez. In fact, Pacquiao reportedly forced his out-of-shape sparring partner to quit after only three rounds—three rounds! Pacquiao has also been keeping in shape by playing basketball. (It’s never a bad idea to do cross-training, anyway—and basketball is also a contact sport that sometimes involves the trading of punches).
“Manny has to decide whether he is a boxer or he’s a politician,” a pissed-off Bob Arum said when he first learned that Pacquiao changed his mind about leaving early for the United States.
Fear not, Bob. It seems that Buboy Fernandez has prepared a revolutionary training regimen to prepare Pacquiao for Marquez.
“Yung galaw ni Marquez, gagayahin ko,” said Fernandez.
How fucking ingenious is that? I mean, how difficult can it be for anybody—especially someone as pudgy and out of shape as Buboy—to mimic Marquez’s expert counterpunching style, a style that the Mexican great has honed for close to twenty years now as a professional boxer? Even Freddie Roach, one of the greatest cornermen of all time as well as a five-time recipient of the BWAA Trainer of the Year Award, couldn’t have thought of this brilliant idea.
So memo to Bob Arum and all those Pacquiao fans who are worried about the quality of training that Manny is getting in GenSan: Chill out. Obviously, Buboy has everything under control.
To paraphrase Bill Clinton’s famous campaign line: It’s the counterpunching, stupid.
1. Nonito Donaire TKO 9 over Toshiaki Nishioka
Why did Nishioka lose?
Nishioka was so hell bent on avoiding Donaire’s money punch—the left hook to the jaw—that he forgot the Filipino Flash’s other repertoire of punches. A solid body shot from Donaire had Nishioka down in the sixth round, and a crushing right straight had him on the canvas again and on Queer Street in the ninth. Nishioka was able to get up, and the referee let the fight continue, but when Nishioka’s corner noticed that the Japanese fighter was stumbling around as if he just had a couple of cups of sake too many, they wisely threw in the towel. I don’t think Nishioka was in the mood to complain either.
What’s next for Donaire?
Aside from getting his oft-injured hand fixed? Abner Mares and Guillermo Rigondeaux, in no particular order. I have an inkling that the fight with Jorge Arce will push through next, in Mexico, but I’m not too keen on that fight happening. Arce is one tough son of a bitch, but Donaire, at this stage of his career, will slaughter him. I also think that Donaire should stay in this weight class for three or four more fights and try to clean up the division first before moving up to featherweight and challenging the big boys. Daniel Ponce de Leon, Billy Dib, and Orlando Salido can wait.
2. Brandon Rios TKO 7 over Mike Alvarado
Why did Alvarado lose?
Because Brandon Rios had an excellent strategy going into the fight, thanks in large part to brilliant cornerman Robert Garcia, last year’s Trainer of the Year. Rios let Alvarado punch his mug over and over and over again until Alvarado lost steam, and Bam Bam then proceeded to bam-bam Alvarado in the seventh round, prompting the referee to stop the fight. Seriously, though, Alvarado was doing a great job trying to keep Rios at bay with a workmanlike jab and an excellent overhand right (Rios is, after all, most effective on the inside while throwing those murderous uppercuts, so fighting on the outside is the perfect strategy), but the fucker just kept pushing forward. This is a potential fight-of-the-year candidate, and a rematch would be awesome. A piece of advice for Alvarado should a rematch push through: he should try to improve on his footwork more so he doesn’t rely on his punches alone to stave off Rios’s attacks.
What’s next for Brandon Rios?
Like I said, an immediate rematch with Alvarado would be a great idea. Or a fight against any legitimate contender at light welterweight. After all, Rios has proven that he can take a full-fledged light welterweight’s punch as well as dish out decent power at 140. But please—and let’s get real here—anybody but Manny Pacquiao, for Rios’s sake. There are talks that Arum wants to put Rios inside the ring against Pacquiao, and unless Rios wants to suffer the fate of an Antonio Margarito, David Diaz, and Ricky Hatton, who all got blasted by Pacquiao, he should stay away from the Pacman for now. Even though Rios has one of the toughest chins in the business, his style is just too tailor-made for Pacquiao, even at this stage of the Pacman’s career. One word: massacre.
What’s next for Anderson Silva?
A fight with Jon Jones for all the marbles would be a great idea. Or a fight with a middleweight or light heavyweight who can honestly give Silva a run for his money. Just not another tomato can or bum, please. And don’t get fooled by someone who carries the moniker “the American Psycho.” Paging Dana White.
This blog has been in existence for almost three years already. In those three years, updates have been—to say the least—sporadic, few and far between. There are even a total of seven months where I haven’t posted anything: I’ve been delinquent back in January, March, April, and December of last year and, most recently, the past three months. So far I’ve written a total of 209 blog posts (counting this one) since I started PFS back in February 2010, and if you divide those by the number of months where I actually posted something, you’ll see that this blog averages eight posts a month. Not bad, but not exactly great either.
Because of the recent inactivity, I actually gave some serious thought about closing down this place last month. Call it blog fatigue, call it laziness, call it whatever you want, but it seemed to be the best decision at that time. I mean, what’s the use of running a blog when you can’t commit to updating it regularly?
So I made myself a deal and gave this blog a new lease on life: write at least five (quality) posts a week until February 4 of next year, when this website’s hosting and domain-name registration expires. If I cannot sustain that quota for the next four months, then perhaps it’s time to let this blog die a natural death.
Countdown starts now.
Before anything else, a full disclosure should be in order: when the smoke cleared after the Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley fight, I had Bradley winning on my unofficial scorecards, just like judges Duane Ford and C. J. Ross (two of the three blind mice, according to Bob Arum). Both judges are now being hauled over hot coals as I write this, and I hate to be either of those two right now. Anyway, as you read this, I’m sure you’re thinking, What fucking fight were you watching, dude? Were you high on bath salts or something? Seriously.
Honestly, when Michael Buffer read the scorecards, I wasn’t shocked at all. I didn’t feel any outrage. I thought the fight could have gone either way, and I thought it was a fair decision. However, according to everyone else (except Thomas Hauser of HBO, Brian Kenny of Top Rank, Bart Barry of 15 Rounds.com [who all scored the fight for Bradley], and Mark Ortega of The Queensberry Rules [who scored the fight a draw]), I was, apparently, wrong. Dead wrong.
So here’s the thing: I consider myself relatively new at this sportswriting thing, having only written seriously about boxing and MMA around four years ago, and never in my write-ups have I professed being an expert. An advantage of this, in my reckoning, is that I can be a lot more open-minded when I screw things up. So apparently, I scored the fight wrong. Big deal. I accept that, and I stand corrected.
But to go back. So how did I score the fight? 115–113 for Timothy Bradley. I gave the first three and the last four rounds to Bradley, while I gave rounds four to eight to Pacquiao. I have been meaning to watch the fight a second time just to see what went wrong in my scoring, but I haven’t really gotten around to doing so. The closest thing, though, is this article by Doghouse Boxing’s John Raspanti, who rewatched the fight for a second time and dissected it round by round. Here’s his verdict on the rounds that I scored for Bradley, which I am reprinting below:
Round 1: Bradley throws the first punch but misses. The two (traded) trade body shots in the first thirty seconds. Pacquiao the aggressor. A Bradley right is blocked by Pacquiao. Bradley using his jab as a range finder. Bradley lands a left to the body. Pacquiao connects with two left hands near the end of the round. Observation: The pattern is set in the first round. Bradley throws more punches, but Pacquiao lands a higher percentage.
Round 2: Bradley still probing with his jab, but not connecting. Pacquiao lands a left hand 18 seconds into the round. Pacquiao lands another left at the 1:42 mark. Pacquiao jab clips Bradley who drives Pacquaio to the ropes. Bradley lands a left while Pacquiao misses with a counter. Observation: A toss-up round. Bradley’s solid left wins the round. He out hustled Pacquiao by a smidgen. Bradley had thrown 71 MORE punches 17 percent connect rate according to Compubox. Pacquiao had landed 29 punches to 25 for Bradley.
Round 3: Bradley lands a straight right to the body. He also connects with a left. Pacquiao stings Bradley with a jab. Pacquiao lands a left to the head and right to the body. Bradley counters with a right to the breadbasket. Two jabs by Pacquiao and a left near the end of the round knock Bradley off-balance. Comments: All three ringside judges had Pacquiao winning two of the first three rounds.
Round 9: Bradley digs a left hook into Pacquiao’s hip. Bradley taps Pacquiao with his jab. The punches aren’t hard, but they get points. Pacquiao lands a left. Bradley works the body of Pacquiao. He lands a uppercut and left hand. Pacquiao misses a combination, but connects with two jabs. His left hand clips Bradley’s chin. Compubox showed Pacquiao connecting with 22 punches, Bradley 21.
Round 10: Bradley lands a good left followed by a jab. Pacquiao fires a combination. Bradley connects with a right hand and two lefts. He smothers Paquiao and connects with his jab. Another left at the bell.
Round 11: Bradley continues to jab. Pacquiao, after being extolled by trainer Freddie Roach, lands a sharp combination. Bradley’s jab is more effective. Pacquiao lands two lefts and a right. Bradley still working the body.
Round 12: Bradley throws a hard combination that is blocked by Pacquiao. He does connect with three jabs to the body. Pacquiao lands a right, but is coasting. Two more jabs by Bradley, followed by a right. The fighters trade lefts at the bell.
Here is Raspanti’s final observation: “A second viewing of the fight convinced this writer of two things. Pacquiao still won the fight, but a few of the rounds were closer. Bradley is effective in ways that are difficult to perceive. Pacquiao was the harder puncher throughout. His coasting at times cost him. However, he still deserved the verdict based on harder and effective punching.”
So what does Raspanti’s article tell us? That even though he still scored the fight for Pacquiao after watching it a second time, perhaps, just perhaps, there were some rounds that could have gone either way depending on the person watching the bout.
Michael Woods of The Sweet Science also penned a similar article. Woods rewatched the fight a third time “to try and watch the rounds and determine if they could PLAUSIBLY be scored for Bradley” and saw “a fight that was closer than it looked initially.” Here’s his take on the seven rounds that I scored for Bradley:
ROUND ONE
The Round Winner: Manny Pacquiao
Could Bradley Have Won It, Plausibly: YesROUND TWO
Could Bradley Have Won It, Plausibly: I suppose so…though I keep getting visions of him being outfitted with little alligator arms as his jab falls short on Manny. Ross and Roth didn’t agree on that front; they gave the nod to Bradley.
ROUND THREE
The Round Winner: Draw
Could Bradley Have Won It, Plausibly: YesROUND NINE
The Round Winner: Pacquiao
Could Bradley Have Won It, Plausibly: If I’m bending to the point where my back is breaking, I guess so…ROUND TEN
The Round Winner: Bradley
Could Bradley Have Won It, Plausibly: YessirROUND ELEVEN
The Round Winner: Draw
Could Bradley Have Won It, Plausibly: YesROUND TWELVE
The Round Winner: Bradley
Could Bradley Have Won It, Plausibly: Yes
Here’s Woods’s final assessment: “So, we will continue to talk about this one. Maybe more useful than looking back, and my robot judges jokes, would be brainstorming and implementing improvements to the system. I’m thinking using more ex professional boxers, who do tend to know what they are seeing in there, couldn’t hurt. Coming up with standardized criteria, so all judges in all jurisdictions are working off the same playbook, seems to make sense as well. And being more judicious about using words like ‘robbery,’ I think, is something I will try to incorporate.”
I am not citing these two articles to defend my initial decision because, right now, I am humbly yielding to overwhelming public opinion that Pacquiao won the fight convincingly—at least until I am able to rewatch the fight and score it again on my own. My point is this: even though a vast majority of people who watched the fight scored it a landslide victory for Pacquiao, there are those in the minority who saw Bradley as the winner, a minority that includes two seasoned boxing writers (Barry and Hauser), a respected boxing broadcaster (Kenny), a couple of veteran boxing judges who may or may not be on the take (Ford and Ross), a pretentious schmuck who runs a boxing blog that rarely gets updated (myself), and—I’m sure—a handful of boxing fans out there who are not just die-hard Bradley fanatics.
And here’s the painful part about this sport, a sport that I love to the death, a sport that I’ve followed since I was a six-year-old: yes, it’s fondly called the sweet science, but when it comes to judging a particular fight, it can be—according to US senator Harry Reid, who was once a former amateur boxer himself—an “inexact science.”
So until someone can come up with a full-proof or, at the very least, better system of judging fights other than leaving the outcome to a handful of people who do not have the benefit of instant replay and Compubox stats—or, more importantly, competence—at their disposal, let the debates rage on.
