[BoxingGlove Notes]
Not fighting like a ready to retire fighter, Manny “PacMan” Pacquiao unanimously defeated Timothy “Desert Storm” Bradley Saturday, April 9, 2016 at the MGM Grand Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada. All 3 fight judges voted the same, 116 to 113 for Manny Pacquiao.
The victory giving Pacquiao the Vacant W.B.O. Intercontinental Welterweight Crown proved without a doubt-at least to me-that Pacquiao had actually won all 3 of his fights with Bradley eliminating labeling this 3rd fight a trilogy.
Trilogy by book definition means that both competitors enjoy a victory a piece over each other and the third fight-trilogy-is the tie breaker.
A few fans, maybe Bradley’s relatives, and also including the Judges of the first fight, on June 9, 2012, felt he had won , even Bradley knew that he was gifted a victory over a shocked Pacquiao at that time.
Manny Pacquiao not only decisively won this last fight, scoring 2 knock downs, one in the 7th and another in the 9th round, but also won his ninth world boxing crown in 8 weight divisions.
Pacquiao absent from the ring for almost a year due to a torn rotator cuff injury on his right shoulder which required surgery after his fight of the century in a losing effort with now retired boxing icon, Floyd Mayweather, Jr., did not appear effected by the surgery nor his long ring absence.
A born again and very improved Bradley was expected to easily defeat Pacquiao and or maybe knock him out. That confidence in Bradley increased when he contracted veteran trainer, Teddy Atlas a former protégé of famed trainer, Cus D’Amato, who developed, former heavyweight champs Floyd Patterson and Mike Tyson.
Atlas a Vince Lombardi-like motivator had successfully prepared Bradley for his fight against former 140 pound world champ , Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios, November 9, 2015 scoring a knockout in the 9th. round.
During all of Press Conferences including New York’s, Bradley continuously repeated during the interviews that Atlas had actually saved his career correcting all of his mistakes especially the ones he was making when he fought Pacquiao , and lost, on April 14, 2014. Additionally Teddy Atlas had pointed out to Bradley his correctable flaws when he defeated, but was almost knocked out by light punching Jessie Vargas, June 27, 2015.
When the trilogy fight with Pacquiao was announced Bradley again trained under the tutelage of Atlas declaring that “Now I have found the plan to decisively beat Pacquiao by knock out and then retire him for good.”
To Bradley’s surprise he encountered although older the same Tazmanian Boxing Devil-Pacquiao-who had beaten 57 opponents, knocked out 38, while losing only 6 fights and held to a draw twice.
After the first round feeling out process you could sense that Pacquiao’s battle plan was better than Bradley’s because having fought Bradley twice before he actually didn’t have any plan, and whatever plan Atlas created for Bradley, was not working.
Pacquiao was just too fast, too determined, too confident, and hit harder to Bradley’s head and body confusing Bradley struggling to adjust to a Pacquiao he thought he could beat easily.
Round after round the 15,000 fans in attendance and the many pay-per-view watchers began to see a bell by bell breakdown of a superbly conditioned athlete-Bradley-who realized that he could not solve the Pacquiao fighting style mystique.
He then resorted to wildly throwing desperate punches with bad intentions to no avail because Pacquiao under the tutelage of Freddie Roach stayed out of harm’s way counter punching or fistically attacking a tiring Bradley whenever he wanted to.
Despite Atlas’ screams of motivational speeches in between rounds Bradley just simply became a routine fighter with no idea, nor plan to pull victory from the arms of defeat. What was worse is that he knew it despite his valiant short lived effort to try to knockout Pacquiao in the 8th round.
That was Bradley’s last hurrah as Manny Pacquiao began to take Timothy Bradley into the deep waters of the championship rounds-11th & 12th –and just punched an already mentally defeated Bradley solidifying his well-earned and redeeming victory.
This Black Star News writer scored the fight 118-110, a unanimous shut out win for Manny Pacquiao.
Bradley although defeated still has a boxing future since he is promoted by Bob Arum’s Top Rank and there are many 147 pound lucrative fights in his radar. For example Bradley could fight the winner of the Shawn Porter vs. Keith Thurman championship fight soon, or perhaps the other 2 undefeated Welterweight Champs, Kel Brooks, London, England or Danny “Swift” Garcia from Philadelphia.
EDITORIAL COMMENT:
During the Post Fight ring interviews Pacquiao was asked repeatedly about his plans to retire so as to enter the political ring, and he answered that he will retire because he has done all he could in boxing and he wanted to devote his Political life to helping his people in the Philippines.
Pacquiao was then asked about a re-match with Floyd Mayweather or a fight with Middleweight Champ Canelo Alvarez, he smiled and said, “ask my Top Rank Promoter, Bob Arum.” The answer increased the speculation that he-Pacquiao-will not retire because there are too many lucrative boxing purses to be earned. He earned $ 20,000 million dollars while Bradley earned only $6,000 million for a half-hour’s work.
Despite Manny Pacquiao’s homophobic remarks which created an uproar around the world especially in the Gay Community, and cost him Nike sponsorship, there was an extensive turn-out of fight fans who cheered Pacquiao more than they did Bradley, and who also welcomed the well-deserved decision.
