Pacquiao vs. Bradley Results: Bradley’s Split-Decision Victory Is a Travesty

With a smile on his face for most of the night, Manny Pacquiao was seemingly grinning at any doubters/haters that thought Timothy Bradley would unseat him from his throne atop the boxing world. Apparently, the judges weren’t smiling back. In a 115-113, 115-113, 113-115 split decision, the three judges crowned Bradley the new champion—while the dumbfounded crowd, family and fans of Pac-Man everywhere scratched their heads to decipher how the outcome was in Bradley’s favor. Pacquiao consistently controlled the fight from round-to-round. Harold Lederman, the on-site analyst for HBO’s coverage of the event, scored every round but No. 10 to Pac-Man, and both announcers consistently praised Pacquiao for landing the left hand and keeping Bradley off-balance for the majority of the early rounds. Starting strong and moving Bradley all over the ring, Pacquiao used his left hand and power punches to both clinch and trade shots with his opponent to the tune of what the audience thought was nine straight rounds for one of the greatest fighters of the generation. Pacquiao took control in round 4, when he landed a flurry of punches and seemingly had the fight won by staying in control and trading shots with Bradley for the rest of the round. However, the judges didn’t see it that way, and either awarded Bradley for attacking at the end of the fight—where Manny failed to finish it off—or decided his technical strikes weren’t as good as Bradley’s, though HBO’s stats showed a 32 percent …