Pacquiao vs. Bradley: Andre Ward Says Bradley Should Give Belt Back

Unified super middleweight champion Andre Ward, who was ringside for this past Saturday's fight, has some harsh advice for Timothy Bradley.

"It was a ridiculous decision," Ward told Vittorio Tafur of the San Francisco Chronicle. "Bradley lost the majority of the rounds. If it was me personally, I would admit defeat and say, 'Here's your belt back.'"

Bradley, who was the beneficiary of one of the most outrageous decisions in recent boxing history, took to his Twitter account on Wednesday defending his victory.

"I finally had a chance to watch the fight last night and after watching it I felt just like I did the night of the fight.. I won the fight!" wrote Bradley.

You'd be hard pressed to find many people outside of Bradley, his manager and two of the three judges from Saturday night who would agree with that statement.

Andre Ward, for one, isn't buying it.

"There was nothing there, nothing to suggest it was even close," Ward said. "If you were being generous, extremely generous, maybe you could give Tim four rounds and he loses 8-4. I love Tim, he is a friend of mine, but he has to know that he lost that fight."

Ward went on to say that he feels Bradley's stock would be enhanced, not diminished, by giving the belt back and admitting defeat. He also pointed out that the real loser from this past Saturday night was the sport of boxing and all those involved in it.

"That's a shame, because they're messing with people's livelihoods when they allow this to happen. It hurts the sport's credibility, it hurts the pay-per-view numbers. ...Boxing was doing great again after the Mayweather-Cotto fight, but one situation like this and we're back on life support.

Ward has been very outspoken in his disagreement with the decision. He has also joined the loud chorus demanding reforms in the sport to protect the integrity of the fights and the results. And these aren't hollow words from a pundit, but perspective from someone within the sport.

"I have dedicated half of my life to this sport, and what happened Saturday is unacceptable," Ward stated. "And it's going to continue to happen until there is a commission that starts to impose sanctions. There have to be investigations and punishments."

While it's highly unlikely that Tim Bradley will heed this advice, hopefully the rest of the boxing community will open its eyes and take concrete steps to clean up the sport and prevent this from happening again.