By Chris Robinson
Over the past few days, people in the sport of boxing have tried to find an explanation for the scorecards of officials Duane Ford, C.J. Ross, and Jerry Roth, who were sitting ringside at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada during Saturday night’s Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley duel.
Pacquiao appeared to do more than enough to score the victory and another defense of his WBO welterweight title but many were shocked when three 115-113 scorecards were read across the board, with Ford and Ross favoring Bradley.
Seated just a short distance from the aforementioned officials during the clash was veteran trainer Miguel Diaz, who has served as Pacquiao’s cutman for the past eight bouts. Obviously the wise Argentinean took in a completely different fight that the judges over the weekend.
“When the fight finished, I didn’t even pay attention to the announcer,” Diaz told me recently. “Because I figured Manny was winning by three, four points with no problem. When I heard ‘the new champion’ then is when I really said ‘Jesus, what’s happening’.”
Sharing his thoughts on the action that took place between Pacquiao and Bradley, Diaz overwhelmingly saw Manny dictating the tempo of the fight.
“Dominated the fight, dominated the action,” state Diaz. “The only rounds that I saw him lose were the tenth, eleventh, because actually Timothy slowed down and he went along with that. But the judges saw it that way, the three well-qualified judges. But guys like [Harold] Lederman from HBO saw it 11 to 1; something's gotta be wrong in boxing.”
Bradley entered the post-fight press conference on a wheelchair, a sign of just how bad he claimed his two foot injuries were. Surely, if Bradley was hindered in that regard, a rematch could have a slightly different look but Diaz has unwavering belief in his charge.
“Well, I always go with my man Pacquiao, No question about it," said Diaz.
Bonus Pacquiao-Bradley SLIDESHOWS
