Never Let It Go to the Judges

Pacquiao rocking Bradley

There’s a saying in the fight sports like boxing and MMA. They say ‘never let it go to the judges’. The saying has always been true as you never want to leave the decision of your livelihood to the opinions of three people.

Many decisions in boxing and UFC have been 50/50 calls where you could argue both fighters won and that’s why it’s not uncommon to see split decisions or the occasional draw. There also has been no shortage of controversial decisions where fans and experts are left perplexed by the decision of the judges.

Normally when a fight goes to the judges’ scorecards, the confidence and arrogant attitudes that are necessary for a fighter to perform to their best, means that both fighters believe they deserve to get the decision in their favour. Yesterday was not one of those fights.

Manny Pacquiao’s split decision loss has been obviously getting the media coverage it deserves for the absolute travesty of a decision it was. Watching the fight there was just an assumption not only from the commentators but also from everyone in the ring, that the decision was rightfully going to be awarded to Pacquiao for his dominance over a very game but outmatched Timothy Bradley.

Bradley and his own crew supposedly admitted they knew they lost the fight and were as shocked as anyone when he was awarded the decision. His post fight interview where he admitted he had to watch the tape to see if he won is as close as I’ve ever seen a winning fighter come to admitting he thought he lost.

By now conspiracy theories are running wild. The main two I’ve seen relate to a late betting plunge on Bradley, suggesting the judges were in on the fix. The other is that with Floyd Mayweather in jail, boxing needed Bradley to win to force a rematch and give boxing another big money fight without having to wait for Pacquiao vs. Mayweather.

I don’t buy the second of those theories as I think people in the know realise that fans don’t want to see the rematch and might even have to deal with a boycott, probably driven via social media, which will have people go out of their way not to support or watch a rematch of this debacle.

I also am not sure how I feel about the idea that the judges were in on the fix. It’s certainly not impossible and wouldn’t be the first time something like that has happened. Roy Jones Jr was screwed out of the gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympics for example. I am leaning towards believing it was incompetence rather than something more malicious at play here, but either way, fight fans worldwide are disillusioned with a sport that was already on life support.

MMA and more specifically the UFC has been doing a superb job of overtaking boxing as the premier fight sport on the planet and after yesterday’s decision, I think the torch has officially been passed. Boxing just doesn’t have the credibility anymore and with only two drawcards in Pacquiao and Mayweather remaining and even their fights feeling contrived; it’s time for me and many others to move on for good.

For me personally, I’m now done with boxing. I can’t pretend I wouldn’t watch Pacquiao vs. Mayweather if they ever finally get around to fighting each other, but besides that one fight, I am saying goodbye to a sport I started watching as a child when Mike Tyson was the man and Jeff Fenech was the pride of Australia.

So to Dana White and UFC, I’m all yours.