LAS VEGAS, Nevada: Unbeaten American Timothy Bradley ended Manny Pacquiao’s 15-fight winning streak with a controversial split decision victory over the Filipino ring icon at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday.
Judge Jerry Roth scored the bout 115-113 for Pacquiao, while C.J. Ross and Duane Ford both saw it 115-113 for Bradley, even though it appeared Pacquiao hurt Bradley throughout the fight — particularly with his straight left hand.
Pacquiao fell to 54-4-2 with 38 wins inside the distance, suffering his first defeat since he dropped a 12-round unanimous decision to Erik Morales in March 2005.
Bradley improved to 29-0 with 12 wins inside the distance and seized Pacquiao’s World Boxing Organization welterweight title.
Pacquiao, a world champion in eight weight classes who is reckoned the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, said he thought he had done enough to win.
“Absolutely, yes,” he said during a post-bout interview, to cheers from the crowd.
“He’s a strong puncher, he rocked me a couple of times in the fight, but I held my ground and fought to the end,” Bradley said. “This is boxing.
“Every round was pretty close. Pacquiao won some of the early rounds. I controlled the later rounds with my jab.
“I need to go home and review the tape,” he added.
Promoter Bob Arum called the decision “unfathomable” and “incomprehensible.”
“I want to congratulate Tim Bradley, he’s going to make a lot of money,” Arum said. “But I want to say I have never been ashamed as much to be associated with the sport of boxing as I am tonight.”
PACQUIAO DELAY
Pacquiao, who had kept his opponent waiting before the start of the fight after watching his beloved Boston Celtics NBA team lose the Eastern Conference finals to the Miami Heat, was initially outboxed by Bradley.
The American landed several early body jabs before the Filipino ended the opening round with a flourish, landing three crunching straight lefts to the head.
Watched by a crowd of just under 16,000 that included former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, Pacquiao continued to dominate Bradley with his probing left hand, then mixed in a series of telling combinations in the third round.
As chants of “Manny, Manny” echoed through the Garden Arena in the fourth round, Pacquiao pummeled Bradley with a withering array of body punches and jabs to the head, Bradley doing well to stay on his feet.
Pacquiao maintained control in the fifth round, subjecting Bradley to a flurry of blows on the counter attack and snapping his head backwards with a shuddering left hook late on.
The Filipino kept Bradley back peddling for most of the sixth round, and pinned him to the ropes with another series of body blows punctuated by a searing right hook.
Though Bradley fought back bravely in the seventh round after a couple of exchanges, Pacquaio’s superior power and speed made a telling difference as the Filipino landed considerably more punches.
Pacquiao was hit by a glancing head butt in the eighth round but he remained in control while frequently smiling as most of the American’s blows landed wide.
Bradley enjoyed his best round of the night in the 10th when Pacquiao appeared to relax but the Filipino came storming back with a late flurry of telling blows in the 11th.
Bradley appeared at the post-fight press conference in a wheelchair.
'IT'S PART OF THE GAME'
The announcement of the result was greeted by boos from the pro-Pacquiao crowd at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Pacquiao’s wife, Jinkee, and sons Manny Jr. and Michael — watching their father fight in Las Vegas for the first time — looked stunned.
However, Pacquiao wasn’t prepared to criticize the judging.
“I accept what the result is,” Pacquiao, 33, said ringside. “I respect the judges, I cannot blame them. It is a part of the game. I give thanks to the Lord. I do my best but my best wasn’t good enough,” said the fighter, who earned a controversial majority decision of his own over Juan Manuel Marquez in November to keep his winning streak intact.
Asked if he thought he had won the fight, Pacquiao replied: “Absolutely, yes,” and the crowd erupted with cheers.
“It was a good, competitive fight,” said Bradley. “Every round was pretty close. Pacquiao won some of the early rounds. I controlled the later rounds with my jab. I need to go home and review the tape.
“He is a strong puncher. He rocked me a couple of times in the fight but I held my ground and fought to the end. This is boxing.”
The official statistics reflected how much more punishing Pacquiao’s blows had been.
He connected with a higher percentage of punches thrown, 253 of 751 to the 159 of 839 for the American, and landed 190 power punches compared to his opponent’s 108.
“It is unfathomable,” fumed Arum. “These people don’t know how to score. The truth is they’re too damn old to judge any more. What were they looking at? This was not a close fight. It’s not good for the sport of boxing.”
Arum said Saturday’s decision was more of a shocker than Pacquiao’s narrow win over Marquez.
“It was close, everybody said it was close,” Arum said of Pacquiao-Marquez. “This wasn’t really a close fight.”
