Las Vegas, Nevada, USA – The relatively unknown undefeated American
boxer Timothy Bradley defeated the eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao
through an arguably controversial split decision victory in the presence of
booing MGM Grand crowd for the WBO Welterweight title minutes ago. American ringside judges Duane Ford and C.J. Ross score the fight 115-113 for Bradley. Judge Jerry Roth gives it 115-113 to Pacquiao.
At the early rounds, Manny Pacquiao dominated the rounds by carefully
planting his one-two combinations. At the end of the third, the Filipino
pugilist unraveled his sneaky combinations despite the ‘stick-and-go’ style of
the American boxer. The eight-time world champion was able to dominate and tame
Bradley through uppercuts and sporadic jabs.
On the fifth round, despite being hit with clean shots, Bradley seem to
just shake off the Filipino’s onslaught by his counterpunches. In the middle of
the sixth round, though, many boxing aficionados would concur that Manny was not
able to follow up his attacks.
On the eighth round, Bradley seemed to stand up and box and try to keep
up with Manny’s relatively slower attacking pace. Hard shots were released by
the Filipino fighter yet the ‘Desert Storm’ was able to stand his ground by
again clinching and hardly leaning his head on his opponent in the process.
On the tenth round, on the only apparent 'Bradley round', the American pugilist was able to hit the Filipino
fighter a couple of times in the head during their encounters although Bradley
is always backing down the canvas. On the last two rounds, Bradley’s
backpedalling has become apparent when the champion pushes the pressure on the
undefeated fighter.
After the fight, everyone was in shock on the announcement of the
decision: two of the three American judges see it 7 to 5 rounds for Bradley.
Awarding the Californian his third world title belt and his 29th
straight win.
The MGM Grand-audience seemed to echo the same dismayed sentiment for
most boxing fans not withstanding the feisty Filipino crowd. Everyone including
Manny, in an interview, believed that he won the fight which should have been
his 16th straight win.
Manny Pacquiao landed 253 of his 493 punches compared to Bradley's 159 of 390 punches. On the final punch statistic, the Filipino champ had a higher punching percentage of 39% compared to Bradley's 28%.
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