Pacquiao-Bradley Aftermath: JD's Case For Bradley

The sports world was rocked last Saturday night after Michael Buffer's "and new" announcement in Vegas.  Timothy "Desert Storm" Bradley beat Manny Pacquiao by split decision.

Most people that saw the fight—from casual fans to boxing experts—believed that Pacquiao won decisively.  And most of those people believe that Pacquiao was a victim of highway robbery.  Fans were booing, people were outraged, and many have predicted boxing's demise as a sport as a result.  HBO announcer Jim Lampley claimed it was perhaps the worst decision he had ever witnessed.  Juan Manuel Marquez effectively said "Karma's a bitch".  Tim Bradley said he needed to watch a tape of the fight to see if he really won.

I too believe Pacquiao won.  But unlike most people, I don't think Pacquiao was robbed.  Scoring boxing is inherently subjective, and there is a plausible way to score the majority of the rounds for Tim Bradley.

In order to explain this I shall inform and remind readers of the 4 criteria for scoring a round of boxing.  They are:

1. Clean Punching: the boxer that lands more punches legally (to the face and body) and flush (not blocked) in a round wins this category
2. Effective Aggression: the boxer that presses the action and lands damaging blows (though not necessarily cleanly) in a round wins this category.
3. Ring Generalship: the boxer that better controls the pace, flow, and style of the fight in a round wins this category.
4. Defense: the boxer that better avoids punishment in a round wins this category.

Usually Clean Punching is given the most weight by judges, but the other 3 criteria certainly matter too, especially when the numbers of clean punches landed by each are close are hard to determine.  On Saturday, we saw these other categories—particularly Ring Generalship—win the fight for Bradley.

Clean Punching
Let's talk about the Clean Punching on Saturday night.  Most people who have written about the travesty they claimed to witness have been citing punch-stat numbers.  Punch stats show that Pacquiao landed nearly 100 more punches than Bradley.

I disagreed with the punch stats on Saturday.

I haven't yet re-watched the fight, but I remember being appalled by the number of punches credited towards Manny at the end of each round.  It just didn't seem like he had out-landed Bradley by the number CompuBox had claimed.  Others have since agreed with me about this.

But supposing the numbers are true and I'm preaching pure buffalo scat, judges still could have a case for giving rounds to Bradley on Clean Punching in which Pacquiao landed more.  Some Vegas judges, including Robert Hoyle, one of the Pacquiao-Marquez III judges, score rounds by the minute.  In this way, the boxer who seemingly lands the most in 2 out of the 3 minutes wins the round.  Hoyle explains this with regard to his scorecard for Marquez III below.

CompuBox has revealed Pacquiao's punches landed minute-by-minute in the Bradley fight for each round.  With this info, it seems plausible for Bradley to have out-landed Pacquiao in the majority of minutes of rounds.  Or, more likely, clean punching just proved to be too iffy a category by which to score.  So the judges considered the other three more carefully.

Effective Aggression
I would have to say that effective aggression went to Pacquiao in the early rounds and Bradley in the later ones.  Pacquiao staggered Bradley in the early rounds.  TB even seemed out-on-his-feet at one point.  But Bradley may have won this category in the later rounds, in which he began working off a stiff jab.  Even when it landed against Manny's guard, it kept him at bay.  I was impressed by that jab in the later rounds.  It was aggressive and it was effective.

Ring Generalship
This went to Bradley throughout the fight.  The pace and style he adopted at any point in the fight determined the pace and style of the fight itself.  In the early rounds, Pacquiao would land because Bradley engaged him.  When Bradley changed his style in the 6th round to a more defensive boxing style, the heated exchanges were less frequent.  Bradley dictated the action throughout the bout and stole many rounds this way.

Defense
Bradley also dominated in this category, and has not been credited enough for it.  He dodged, ducked, slipped, blocked, and countered incredibly.  There were times in the fight where he went into the southpaw stance for a split second just to avoid Manny's straight left hand and then walk away unharmed.  I had never seen a boxer avoid Manny's punches like Bradley did.  This also helped afford him rounds on the judges' cards.

Conclusion
I'll say again that I haven't yet re-watched the fight.  And I'll also say again that I thought Manny won the fight.  If I was a judge I would have probably given Bradley 3 out of the 12 rounds.  But with the above I hope to have restored some of the credibility of the Nevada State Athletic Commission and its judges, and the sport of boxing itself.  I don't think this was a fix or a blatant robbery, I think this was the product of an unpopular lens through which to view this fight.

And, hey, we've got a hungry new welterweight champ in town and a former welterweight champ who's vowed to knock his usurper out in the rematch.  I can't remember when boxing's been this interesting.

-JD