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When I watched it again I honestly expected to confirm my view that Manny had won by 3/4 clear rounds, at least. I never get too worked up over a decision until I've watched the fight again as it's so easy to miss things first time around, but I was really surprised that this one was so different.
The crucial difference was the quality of Manny's work. Bradley did a way better job of making him miss than I saw anyone give him credit for initially. Most of Manny's shots were glancing at best, and either blocked or wide the rest of the time.
So it changed the fight from one where Manny would work for 30-60 seconds and land the decisive shots, to one where Manny would do nothing for two minutes, then land some glancing blows in a few spurts of action before the bell sounded.
It also made you realise that Bradley was the one deciding the nature of the exchanges for the most part, and while he wasn't as effective as Marquez is controlling the ring, his gameplan was cut from a similar cloth.
If Bradley could punch, or had even taken a few more chances when he had Manny out of position, I think he would have gotten the UD. As it was, there were like you say 3-4 rounds in the fight that were a toss up. As such you can't argue with a close decision either way.
The crucial difference was the quality of Manny's work. Bradley did a way better job of making him miss than I saw anyone give him credit for initially. Most of Manny's shots were glancing at best, and either blocked or wide the rest of the time.
So it changed the fight from one where Manny would work for 30-60 seconds and land the decisive shots, to one where Manny would do nothing for two minutes, then land some glancing blows in a few spurts of action before the bell sounded.
It also made you realise that Bradley was the one deciding the nature of the exchanges for the most part, and while he wasn't as effective as Marquez is controlling the ring, his gameplan was cut from a similar cloth.
If Bradley could punch, or had even taken a few more chances when he had Manny out of position, I think he would have gotten the UD. As it was, there were like you say 3-4 rounds in the fight that were a toss up. As such you can't argue with a close decision either way.
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