Pacquiao vs. Bradley Rematch: Shady Judging Makes Another Fight Inevitable

The three judges who scored the Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley fight must have been out of their mind to come up with a split decision that favored Desert Storm over Pac-Man. Either that, or they are on the payroll of someone who has been counting on a rematch between these two fighters. 

Nearly everyone who watched the fight—including many Bradley fans—agree that Pacquiao dominated the action and should have won the fight, hands down. ESPN's Dan Rafael—one of the true experts in the sport of boxing—agrees:

"

Bradley by split decision. I AM SHOCKED. Crowd is going nuts. 115-113 Manny, 115-113 x 2 for Bradley.

— Dan Rafael (@danrafaelespn) June 10, 2012"

He then confirmed what seemed obvious to me—Pac-Man wants a rematch:

"

Freddie says he had it 10-2 for Manny. I'm just so ticked off by the scores. Manny says he wants the rematch. #PacBradley #boxing

— Dan Rafael (@danrafaelespn) June 10, 2012"

Rafael went into depth in one of his articles on ESPN.com, writing: 

"

Ringside punching statistics showed Pacquiao landing 253 punches to 159 for Bradley, who vowed before the fight to take the 147-pound title from Pacquiao. The Compubox statistics showed Pacquiao landing more punches in 10 of the 12 rounds.

"

This only confirms what everyone who watched the fight already knew: The judges should be ashamed of themselves. They made a mockery out of the sport of boxing and robbed not only Pacquiao, but also the millions of hard-working fans who shelled out $54.95 to watch the pay-per-view event.

The whole thing reeks of a conspiracy to create the need for a rematch. Both fighters are promoted by Bob Arum's company, Top Rank, and it would be in the company's best financial interest to have another big fight.  

Heck, Bradley foreshadowed this entire thing by bringing a massive ticket to one of the press conferences leading up to their fight for a rematch that was fictitiously set for November 10. Maybe he knew something the rest of us weren't privy to.

After the fight, even Arum was "outraged" over the verdict, per ESPN.com:

"

Something like this is so outlandish, it's a death knell for the sport. This is f------ nuts. I have both guys, and I'll make a lot of money in the rematch, but it's ridiculous. You have these old f---- who don't know what the hell they're looking at. It's incompetence. Nobody who knows anything about boxing could have Bradley ahead in the fight.

"

We'll never know whether or not Arum was legitimately angry or just pretending, but at least he acknowledged the fact that he stands to gain from this travesty.

Whether Arum is right and the sport needs new judges who are competent, or whether they were competent to begin with but had an agenda, we'll never know. The only thing we know for sure is that the shady judging that occurred ensures another fight will happen.

We'll just have to wait and see if Bradley's big ticket was true prophecy or not. We'll know soon enough when we learn the date of the inevitable rematch.

Follow @JesseReed78