That would seem to be a very interesting question. After all, professional boxing has never exactly been known for its ethics. There's been some very shady goings-on over the years, to say the least.
In the Pacquiao/Bradley bout, most boxing analysts had Pacquiao winning 10 rounds out of 12. Though he never came close to knocking Bradley down, people who keep track of such stats said Pacquiao hit Bradley about 100 times more than Bradley hit him. I dare say most who watched it would agree that Manny won handily. Promoter Bob Arum was outraged at the result, even though, oddly enough, he promotes both fighters.
And let's not forget, right or wrong, it's always been an unwritten rule in boxing that a challenger has to beat the champ convincingly to take his title(s). That didn't happen by any stretch of the imagination.
Two ringside judges scored the bout 115-113 for Bradley, while the third scored it 115-113 for Pacquiao. Other than Bradley fans, most were shocked the tallies were even that close.
That's where the plot thickens. After the fight, Manny didn't seem the least bit upset with the result, even though he apparently "was robbed". That seemed strange. He said it would only make him better for the rematch, which is supposed to happen in November.
But wait a second. Allegedly, the rematch was only agreed to by the camps of both fighters, and the boxers themselves, mere hours before they both climbed in the ring in Las Vegas. They signed on for this fight several months ago, and agreed to a rematch just hours before it began, which resulted in a huge upset? Hmmm.
Actually, in the the world of boxing, it makes sense. Had Pacquiao got the victory he evidently deserved, Bradley, no longer undefeated and not exactly a household name, would have been thrown back into the pack of other contenders to slug it out for another possible title shot. There's some tough customers out there Bradley hasn't fought yet, and there would be no guarantee he could get through them for another crack at a championship.
But with the "fix" for the rematch mysteriously appearing at the 11th hour, and Bradley somehow being declared the winner of the fight -- it sets up another superbout that people the world over will highly anticipate. Cha-ching, in a large way, perhaps the biggest ever.
I suspect Manny will put a beating on Timothy in November. If that happens, there has to be a "rubber match" -- right? Did I mention cha-ching? Yet there's a couple things I could never understand..
Manny's a native Filipino. So why does he train for the last month or so before a big fight in LA? Further, as the champ he was -- why did he always agree to come to a casino in Las Vegas to actually fight? I always wondered why he didn't insist on another "Thrilla in Manilla". Champions sometimes go into the challenger's country to prove their worthiness, but shouldn't they get to fight at home once in a while?
Money wouldn't be a problem. They would have packed that arena chock full at big buck ticket prices, and the millions of pay-per-view customers around the world shelling out $69.95 or whatever wouldn't care where the fight was at. Security? Are you kidding? Manny's a national hero in the Phillipines. It would likely be easier to slap Barack Obama around in the White House, than to get anywhere near Manny in his home country with evil intent -- especially at a high profile event.
What of Floyd Mayweather? He's still sitting in his jail cell outside of Las Vegas. He probably liked Manny being "decisioned", but when he gets out in a few weeks -- what's he going to do? He always seemed to be scared of Pacquiao, and now Bradley could care less about him while he prepares for the rematch in November.
And that's the thing. Win or lose, Floyd's arrogance cost him more than he seems to realize. Had he fought Pacquiao in the fight the whole world wanted to see -- and defeated him -- Mayweather could have rode off into the sunset claiming to be the greatest boxer of all-time in his weight divisions, and it might be hard to argue that. Even if he lost to Pacquiao, he likely would have made $70-80 million on the fight. Even after paying off Uncle Sam, his posse, and throwing Justin Bieber a couple autographed C-notes to placate the little nerdy white boy, that's a whole lot of money.
Either way, he would have won. For the next 5 months the hype for the Pacquiao/Bradley rematch will slowly build. Mayweather craves attention, but few will think of him. He lost, in more ways than one.
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