If Only Boxing Judges Were Like Umpires

June 11th, 2012

Just calling balls and strikes in the Manny Pacquiao fight (I know nothing about boxing, but find interesting judges of all stripes explaining their decisions following criticism):

The two veteran judges at the center of a controversial split decision for Timothy Bradley over Manny Pacquiao in a welterweight title bout Saturday night have defended themselves, telling the Las Vegas Review-Journal they stand by their work.

“I thought Bradley gave Pacquiao a boxing lesson,” Duane Ford said, according to the newspaper. “I thought a lot of the rounds were close. Pacquiao missed a lot of punches and I thought he was throwing wildly.”

Bradley came on strong in the later rounds, winning five of the last six on two scorecards and four on the third. He won 115-113 on the scorecards of Ford and C.J. Ross, while losing on Jerry Roth’s by the same margin.

ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael scored it 119-109 for Pacquiao and has called the decision “an absolute absurdity.” The Associated Press had Pacquiao winning 117-111.

They weren’t alone in their dissension.