Tag Archives: WBO welterweight championship

blog, boxing, news, sports

Pacquiao-Bradley 2 (#PacBradley): Here’s how I see it, as it happens…

 

When we get past the undercard and all the pre-fight festivities,  I will type my impressions and score the fight in real time here.

Strange to hear Pacquiao described as the “challenger.” But he is.  Bradley is 31-0 and the WBO Welterweight champ.  Pac looks all business. No smiles. Bradley has his game face. The rumble begins.

Round 1: Pacquiao and B trade shots, P commands center of ring early. Both fighters keeping their distance while trying to show aggression. Bradley toward the end comes on with :12. Round goes to Bradley, 10-9.

Round 2:  Bradley pushed back on hook, recovers. Pacquiao aggressive, throws combination and B goes into ropes. B comes back with body punches, doesn’t give in. B. with hardshots to P head. B not backing down.  Close, but I’ll give that to P for getting B on ropes, 10-9.

Round 3: Pacquiao lands combo early. At 1:57, P lands solid lefts to B. B has P against ropes and lands to the body. P landing left to B.  B counters with rights to the body. Flurry of punches in this round, give it to P, 10-9. Compubox numbers on HBO give P the edge with 22 powershots, 7 more punches landed.

Round 4: Bradley gets in a shot that rocks Pacquiao. B needed that  as P was landing shots early. :30 left B shows he’s unrelenting. The B. right gives him edge here. Bradley, 10-9. Replay shows P lifted off his feet.  Punch stats still show P. landing more.

Round 5: Minute left, the round still contested with both fighters trading jabs. B had arms down in last :15 and Pacquiao may have stolen the round with action in the last seconds. Pacquiao, 10-9.

Compubox totals from HBO: P 14/42, B 11/46,  Powershots, P 9, B 8.

Round 6: Much slower round than previous. :40 left and seems even. A coasting round. P throwing pinches on ropes. B coaxes P to punch him, but round ends. End theatrics give round to P, 10-9. HBO Compubox totals, P- 12/53, B 8/50, P with  10-8 powershot advantage.

Round 7: Pacquiao gets a left in. Bradley lands a hard right, and some body shots. Tempo back to that of early rounds. Combos by P with :44 left. P adds more with B in corner. Big round for P. as B tries modified “rope-a-dope.” But P. tees off. Pacquiao wins that, 10-9.

Compubox gives P 26 landed out of 75 thrown. B, 14 of 56.

Round 8: Pacquiao cruising, but lands with his left several times. B. tries to mug, to show he’s not hurt. Not sure if that’s working. B. coming up top with the right. Close, but ring generalship gives round to P, 10-9.

Round 9:Compubox numbers have P ahead with 119 punches landed to 90-plus for B thus far….  P. rocks Bradley into ropes and seems hurt. Off-balance twice so far. P. with rights and combos to B.  B. is throwing 1 to P. 5 punches, it seems. Pacquiao wins the round 10-9, decisively.

Round 10: Pacquiao in last round had 14/24 to B 10/24 punch edge. This round starting with P. in command at the center and B. backing up.  B looks to be trying to find a knockout punch, but missing. P counters with combinations that have him outpointing B.  P with left seems to stun B and B counters wildly and misses. Pacquiao wins round, 10-9.

Round 11: Pacquiao outpunched Bradley 26-12 in previous round. P starts out round with solid left. B seems to be tiring as he’s not throwing as many punches. Pacquiao the aggressor, Bradley backing up. P lands a left with :40 left.  Round ends with B retreating and missing. Pacquiao wins round, 10-9.

Round 12: Compubox numbers continue trend. Pacquiao landing. Bradley’s head turned. Bradley never has had a KO past the 8th round, so unlikely here. P good defense catching B’s best. 1 minute left, B misses right. P at center in control :30 left. Time out due to accidental head but with :12 left.  B starts working but it ends. B lifts arms up, but why? I’ve got P winning this 10-9.   And have P winning 11 of 12 rounds. (Correction: On recount, I gave the 4th round to Bradley based on the “lift-up” punch he landed on Pacquiao. Wasn’t a knockdown, but was impressive.  So Bradley won 2 rounds, Pacquiao 10, in my estimation).

Bradley was tough early. But didn’t do enough by my eye.

Final scoring: Unanimous for Pacquiao. All three judges.

HBO’s numbers show P landed 198 to Bradley’s 141, and landed 35percent of his punches to Bradley’s 22percent.

Pacquiao also threw more power punches 148-109.

The placement of the punches: Pacquiao landed 176 of his punches to Bradley’s head.  Bradley landed 98 t0 Pacquiao’s head.

Bradley landed 43 punches to P’s body. P just landed 22 body punches to Bradley. Pacquiao was clearly going for a head snapping KO. Bradley tried, but that really isn’t his game.

In the end, Bradley good, but Pacquiao is just better.  Bradley is a toe-to-toe guy, not a knockout guy. Pacquiao may not have the kind of power he showed when he clicked off  Ricky Hatton, but he’s got a lot left.

This is a $20 million guaranteed pay day. And a relatively soft spot for Pacquiao.  He said he wants to go 2 more years. It may take that long before Mayweather stops ducking him.

That’s it for this live blog experiment. Check back for more analysis later.

SEE MY COLUMN in the  Philippine Inquirer:

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/102128/pacquiao-should-box-on

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

blog, news, sports

Affirmative action, Timothy Bradley,Jr., and the suckerpunch heard round the world

It’s funny what people have reacted to in my post-fight  post on the Pacquiao/Bradley fight on sfgate.com

I said that the outrageously bogus decision in favor of Bradley could have been “boxing’s affirmative action.”

I found the notion funny.

To me it’s as clear as “why did the chicken cross the road?”

But for those who don’t share my sense of humor, allow me to explain. 

Tim Bradley did not deserve to win.  The judges inexplicably gave him the fight. This is not good.

The standard anti-affirmative action stance is that affirmative action is often thought to benefit the undeserving.  Bradley certainly was undeserving.

If you didn’t get the joke, the joke was on you.

When I support affirmative action it is always about making sure the underserved and underrepresented get a fair chance. But recipients have to be qualified on the merits. They have to be truly deserving.  That’s always been the true intent of affirmative action.

By using the phrase in my boxing post, I was mocking the traditional sense of affirmative action used by anti-affirmative action folks.

How else could Bradley be given the championship? It wasn’t because of his great skill to punch air and miss Pacquiao. The stuff of champions? No.

Another reader suggested that I was anti-black and  showed I was OK with affirmative action for me, but not for thee.

Once again, my stand in favor of affirmative action in some people’s mind favors  blacks and Latinos and hurts Asian Americans. So any criticisim of me on that point makes no sense.

So now that’s cleared up, there’s still this small matter of who won that damn fight.

Glad to see other fighters like Andre Ward chime in that Bradley should give back the belt. That would be interesting.

Won’t happen.

With their bad decision, the judges are simply reminding us that this is part of the “joy” of boxing–the post-ring debate.

And it goes on because the absolute “truth” can’t really be had unless one fighter can’t answer the bell.

You want certainty, knock the guy out. Until then, if you’ve got eyes, you’ve got an opinion. Box on.

Those who prefer logic bring up Pacquaio’s last fight with Juan Manuel Marquez and say Marquez should have won that.  They call the Bradley fight “karma.” B.S. The Marquez fights were actually close, and could have gone either way. 

The Pacquiao Bradley fight was not 115-113 close, and certainly not in Bradley’s favor.

In fact, many of the conspiracy theories out there now figure Arum needed to pump up Bradley’s credibility to keep his cash cow Pacquiao boxing until the guy everyone really wants to see Pacquiao fight –Floyd Mayweather, Jr.–gets out of jail. Do we really want to see a Pacquaio Marquez IV?  Or do we want to see “Manny’s Revenge”?  Arum has a need to keep things interesting. He owns a piece of all the boxers. Conflict of interest is just part of the professional game, which is as close to a monopoly as it gets. The state of boxing smells. And if it didn’t bother us enough before last weekend, maybe we just got used to the smell.

Still, some of us more interested in the sport of boxing try to keep the “sweet science” separate from boxing’s bitter, venal world that commingles high-stakes  business and gambling.

This weekend’s suckerpunch was our wake-up call. It can’t be done.

The only thing we can do is act as consumers. Pay-per-view? Not with my hard earned dough.

Also see my pre-fight column where I question if Pacquiao has the desire to fight any longer.  His post-fight demeanor has been very “Love they neighbor.”  Maybe religion is his calling. Or maybe he figures the “lost brain cell to earned dollar” ratio in boxing is still in his favor. He can roll in the cash until early dementia sets in. He can quit, stay healthy or fight me.

And I know he won’t fight me now,  because he knows I can beat him. 

I just need the right judges.