Was the Manny Pacquiao / Tim Bradley title fight fixed?
You bet. Which is not anything new in boxing, right? Remember Liston/Clay and the Phantom Punch? And the Ali/Spinks (Leon) fixed fight the first time. Ali maybe was not in on it, who knows.
WHY, YOU ASK?
Simple. As the sport gets weaker, they need to fire up the fans and force a new "bad guy" onto the scene and add a couple big money fights. You know, get people talking. All three of these fights did just that – it worked.
With Ali leaving the game in the late 70’s and nobody else truly mattering, they had to prompt him to fight one more time, to buy time to find a new savior. Until they found Larry Holmes and soon after Mike Tyson. So the fix worked.
However, this one is pure genius.
Manny may not have been in on it, nor was Bradley, or so it seems from their comments and looks after the decision. But let’s look at this closer. The AP had it 117-111 for Manny – not even close – and they were pretty much on it. The ringside fixers had it 115-113 for Bradley (one had it 115-113 for Manny).
However, according to all credible reports, Manny won in a breeze.
He hurt Bradley twice in the 4th and 5th rounds. Bradley fought close in the middle and at the end, but never had Manny in trouble or was a clear winner. You always have to take it from the champ – close goes to champ – and this wasn’t close.
"I’ve never been as ashamed of the sport of boxing as I am tonight" said promotor and manager of both fighters Bob Arum. And he may have in fact been the fixer. Arum benefits the most. Now we have a huge payday for BOTH his guys in November. Ten times the money. Bradley got $5 million and he likely never saw 50 grand before last night for one fight.
Here’s the best news: After Manny "wins back his title" – and he will – then..get this, you’ll love it…He fights Floyd Mayweather as he always planned. I figure Floyd wins, and now, this is great…MAYWEATHER FIGHTS BRADLEY FOR BIG BUCKS AGAIN and wins. Nice.
SEVERAL HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS COMING FOLKS.
And trust me, people will watch, more now than before. WHY? THE CONTROVERSY.
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It’s almost as if professional boxing is going the way of professional wrestling.
Oh, for the good old days with Joe Lewis, Rocky Marciano, Ali….
You know what’s hysterical? Today these top guys make 50 times more than those guys even dreamed of. It’s not fair.
Yep, the fix is in, always has been. Kinda makes you wonder about other pro sports, huh?
Oh, yeah…
"I tried but I couldn’t beat the guy," Bradley said before the decision was read that he’d won.
End of story. Even Bradley knew he got whipped.
duh
boxing has been dead for a long time. Great fighters that could have done well can’t get the money
they need to exist so they drop out. The graziano kid from kc wqas headed to big things but you
don’t hear much about him and he fights in small venues.
It’s all about money and politics….hundred million dollar fights comingup….its all the
breath life into a dying sport.
I agree Glaze
Boxing used to be one of my favorite sports. It has been ruined by greed and corruption. I now watch mma instead of boxing. I’d even rather watch pro wrestling. At least they are honest about it being fixed. If boxing was like it was in the days of Ali-Frazier, Leonard-Hagler, etc., I would still love it. It was the most exciting sport in the world back then.
The Sweet Science?
Teddy Atlas said it best in a tweet after the fight, “Boxing is a corrupt sport”.
The dirty little secret about boxing is that the best fights are not the mega fights. They are on ESPN or Boxing after Dark on HBO, fought by guys from other countries in the welterweight and middleweight classes.
MMA is a pseudo sport. Essentially a coin flip when they wear that light of gloves. Plus Dana White just sets up whatever outcome he wants, preferably by a KO.
I will continue to enjoy boxing. Let the drooling masses lap up MMA to their hearts content. Boxing is still the sweet science.
some people say this is the best things
for boxing.
controversey stirs interest…and now with all those fighters in the middle of this it will create some
buzz about boxing like not seen in many many years.
The bad decision was one thing…but it sets up some huge fights for pacqiao…
I was at mandalay bay when pac fought. After the fight the entire main floor and casino
was filled with phillipinos everywhere.
But this will get boxing back in peoples minds and when bradley fights again expect big
ppv revenue…it’s all probably set up to maximize income for all the people involved.
Money…that what its all about for these people and they are going to see lots of
it even though people knew the fix was in on this one.
question: what if pac knocked the guy out? Then there would not have been all the
possible fight matchups there are now…
and I have’t paid attention to boxing in years. My family knew guys like chiaverini…ronny marsh…
john brown…people at title boxing…but it’s pretty much a dead sport…except it growing popularity
as one of the hottest exercise programs for non fighters.
@balbonis moleskine
You don’t know anything about MMA. Fighters like Anderson Silva, Georges St. Pierre, and Jon Jones have long winning streaks which show it is not just a coin flip. Also, the fights are won in different ways, not just knock outs. Wrestling, submissions, elbows, knees and kicks are all part of the sport. Even a knock out specialist such as Junior Dos Santos has to have substantial grappling skill in order to defend takedowns in order to be in the position to deliver a knockout. Some MMA fighters have backgrounds as world class wrestlers or kickboxers.
btw
I still love the sport of boxing and may try some of the fights you are talking about. What makes me sad is that once some of these fighters become contenders, they have to deal with Don King or Bob Arum to get big fights. To me, there is room for both boxing and MMA. They are just two different sports.
harley equals
douche bag yuts slurper
Boxing is fixed?!?!?!?!
No way, my good buddy Guido Italiano said it was totally on the up and up, clean as a whistle.
No way boxing could be dirty he says.
mma is not a coin flip
its one of the most intense events and the most brutal and intense training regimen
anywhere in sports….
Go watch the top people in mma train…beyond human comprehension. I know Michael
Chandlers family from mizzou…have watched this guy fight and train. You willnever see
the intensity and tough regimen that is followed by this guy….he’s now a bellator
world champion…former ncaa top wrestler…ground game is incredible….and having
watched him fight live and up close…theres nothing in sport like mma. These mma world
class fighers are incredibly tuned and in shape…
Also know ben (ncaa wrestlihng champion)…he’s champion and moving into bigger
money ……
you would not want to mess with these guys under and circumstance…i would guess
that the top mma guys could beat any boxer …
@harley
What you say is mostly true. A top MMA guy can beat a top boxer in an MMA match. Randy Couture finished off James Toney easily by wrestling him to the ground and submitting him. However, if it was a boxing match, the boxer would win just as easily. I respect the guys in either sport for their talent, training and heart. It is really apples and oranges when you try to say who is better.
mike
in a full contact fight mma guys would destroy boxers. Because of their ability to wrestle/grapple they would
have to ability and training to put a boer on his back and ground and pound him .
No doubt boxers have extreme train ing but these mma guys are beyond any kind of regimen i’ve seen.
And the damage done by mma guys probably could destroy a boxer.
MMa guys are taught to take intense punishment…i don’t know if a boxer could take the same
beating and stay upright. Without the padded gloves, the boxer might not have the ability to
withstand bare knuckle punches that the mma guys train to handle every day.
Would be interesting to see….
Nothing New
The “fix” dates as far back as the Long Count in Dempsey v. Tunney…the Basilio v. Robinson rematch…the Ali-Norton rubber match @ Yankee Stadium…nothing new in this sport. The reason the sport sucks right now is not because of the controversy or so-called fixing, it’s because of the lack of charismatic stars especially among the heavyweight division which was always the big draw, the alphabet soup titles, the rise in popularity of crap like pro wrestling and ultimate fighting and just the general decline over the years in sports outside outside of traditional league sports that were once huge, like horse racing, Indy car racing.
The aroma of arum
Bob Arum, who promotes both fighters, has asked the Nevada Attorney General to investigate the scoring of the fight. This is gonna make Watergate, Iran Contra and Fast and Furious look like an episode of Judge Judy. Most likely the fight will be called a no contest and a rematch will take place in November as a warmup for Manny and Floyd. Everybody keeps the money they have, they get a chance to make even more all under the guise of righting a wrong. I did not have pugilistic relations, with that man, Mr. Pacquiao.
I think in this case we must
look to Hanlon’s Razor for guidance.
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.