AMERICAN BOXING PROMOTER Bob Arum has blasted the judges who handed Timothy Bradley a split-decision victory over Manny Pacquiao on Saturday.
Arum, whose company Top Rank promoted the bout at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, labelled the decision ‘crazy’.
Bradley, 28, won Pacquaio’s WBO welterweight title with the victory, handing the 33-year-old Filipino his first loss in 16 fights.
The American enjoyed some success early in the fight, with his speed and work rate causing the champion some problems. Pacquiao assumed control in round four, however, stunning Bradley with some big punches and he dominated the middle stages of the contest.
The Filipino appeared reluctant to go for the knockout in the later stages, however, allowing Bradley back into the fight. Jerry Roth had Pacquiao the winner 115-113 after the 12-round contest, but CJ Ross and Duane Ford scored it for Bradley by the same margin, handing him the win.
Arum was incensed with the verdict, and claimed the judges were too old to be officiating.
“These people don’t know how to score,” Arum said. “Two of the judges were judging fights when I first came to Las Vegas and the truth is that they’re too damn old to judge anymore – that’s the truth.
“The third judge, the lady (Ross), I don’t think she’s ever done a championship fight before. What the hell? All three of them, including the one that called it 7-5 for Pacquiao, what were they looking at?
“I know that the (Juan Manuel) Marquez v Pacquiao fight, a lot of people were going with Marquez, a lot of people for Pacquiao, but it was close, everybody said it was close – this wasn’t really a close fight.”
Bradley, meanwhile, is looking forward to a rematch in November and said the judging of the fight was beyond his control.
“The funny part is that there’s three judges out there and that’s the way they judge it so what do you want me to do?” Bradley said. “That’s the way they judged it.
“My corner felt we were winning the fight, I was controlling the action but like I said, there were three judges – two of them felt like I won the fight and that’s all I can say on that. We definitely got to do it again, I definitely got to go back to the drawing board.
“I know where my mistakes were in the fight and I’ve just got go back and correct them and I should have an easier fight.”
