Pacquiao vs. Bradley Results: What Shocking Upset Means for Boxing

With one controversial split decision, the sport of boxing has drastically changed.

I'm not going to bother getting into whether Manny Pacquiao actually deserved to win his fight over Timothy Bradley or not. You can be your own judge in that regard.

But the first point that should be made is now conspiracy theories will run rampant for days, accusing Bob Arum of setting up a lucrative rematch opportunity, or that the judges finding the fight for Bradley were paid off to do so.

I'm not going to lend credence to nor outright deny the validity of those claims. All I will say is this: For a sport that has a seedy history full of scandal and fixing fights, this is the worst possible sort of talk.

This makes people doubt the reality of what they are seeing, and in turn makes them tune in to something else, like the ever-growing UFC, for example.

And for those of you hoping for a Manny Pacquiao versus Floyd Mayweather superfight, well, this result probably won't help that cause. I would guess Mayweather will insist that he has even more leverage after a Pacquiao loss and demand he receive a larger proportion of the split.

That is, if Pacquiao continues to box. While I believe he'll take his right to a rematch against Bradley, how much longer—if at all—will he fight after that match?

Especially if he undoubtedly loses the rematch.

Of course, it's not all doom and gloom. No matter which way the outcome went, Bradley proved himself a worthy opponent and capable of competing with the elite fighters in the world today. And even more importantly, he remains undefeated at 29-0.

And we all know how valuable an undefeated record can be. It remains the feather in Mayweather's cap, years after he's been challenged by a truly elite contender.

Whether or not you think he deserved to win, Bradley at least wasn't completely outclassed. He competed, he didn't back down and he gave Pacquiao a run for his money. Bradley proved a lot on Saturday night.

But with one split decision, the sport of boxing changed, at least in the short term. Where it goes from here will be very interesting to see.

Hit me up on Twitter—my tweets really wanted to have another.