Manny Pacquiao: Controversial Loss Proves Boxing Must Move to Live Scoring

Manny Pacquiao's controversial loss to Timothy "Desert Storm" Bradley should lead to a change in policy in the sport of boxing.

Pacquiao had his way with Bradley for most of the 12 rounds of their bout for Pac-Man's WBO welterweight title. The ringside judges scored the fight otherwise, though, awarding Bradley a victory in a fight where he was completely undeserving.

There were three outcomes from this fight. The first, Bradley won the WBO welterweight title and grabbed the inside track to boxing prominence. Secondly, Pacquiao lost his title, as well has his decade-long perch atop the sport.

The third was the most important of all: Boxing lost whatever credibility it had left, and those in charge were berated with outcries of match fixing and collusion.

The black eye that the sport of boxing now has can only be covered up if a round-by-round live scoring system of judging is instituted.

This archaic method of keeping the score of a competition hidden from the spectators until the end needs to be done away with. If it is not, there's no way that boxing can dispel the notion that fights are being fixed. Until the fans know who won each round immediately after the round ends, nobody will believe in the slightest amount of integrity.

This isn't to say that a significant percentage of fights are fixed, as the heavy majority of matches are fought in good conscience. There isn't even any evidence that this fight was fixed, and there may never be.

But if fans can see the scores coming up after each round, there's less room for illegalities and shady measures.

What would happen if we didn't have live scoring in football, baseball or basketball? Fans would be outraged if they didn't know the score of a game until it was over.

Of course, boxing is different and there's not as clear-cut of a scoring system as there are in other sports, but live scoring wouldn't be hard for the judges to do. They already have to have their round scores tallied before the next round starts, so it's not a matter of inconvenience that is keeping this from happening.

I'm not even sure what the reason is for keeping these scores hidden until the end of the fight (if you know, enlighten me in the comments section). There aren't any advantages that the boxing commission is afforded for keeping their scores private, other than the opportunity to engage in immoral behavior.

If for no other reason, live scoring needs to be installed just so the sport of boxing can demonstrate to its fans that what happened in the Pacquiao-Bradley fight was not acceptable to those in charge.

Boxing needs to take action. The sport is quickly losing fans, as evidenced by the mass media uprising following the fight. That downward trend will continue unless something changes, most notably, the scoring system.