General Admission
Bradley made Pacquiao the better fighter
By Al S. Mendoza
MANNY Pacquiao had just discarded his cloak of monotonous machinegun mean streak.
Whereas before, he had this penchant to savage his opponent at every opportunity; this time, he did things in a surgical, methodical, manner.
Whereas before, almost from start to finish, he would swarm all over his opponent, unmindful of traps along the way; this time, he did things one at a time, step by step.
Whereas before, it was all work and a replica of busy-as-a-bee in every round; this time, he had at least two restful rounds to sort of reassess the direction of his journey.
He even clinched, which was never seen of him in the past.
He ran at times, which was uncharacteristic of the always-charging PacMan.
He also initiated touch-gloves, deviating from his avowed pre-fight promise to revive his “killer instinct” and “aggressiveness” from the opening bell on.
Oh, yes, no doubt he tried to knock Timothy Bradley out.
He almost did—beginning in the second round.
When he couldn’t, he resumed it in the third round.
When he couldn’t yet again, he rested in the fourth. And in the fifth.
That’s when I gave both the fourth and fifth rounds to Bradley.
Then in the sixth, Pacquiao pursued Bradley again.
It was like the Pearl Harbor bombing all over again, with Pacquiao firing on all cylinders all the way to the 10th.
Give credit to Bradley, who survived what had been virtually a holocaust—a gas chamber even.
In fact, in the 11th, Bradley was even able to land some of his best punches in the fight, forcing me to give him the round.
And in the 12th and final frame, Bradley did not blink and, if not for a couple of clean, good shots Pacquiao hand landed on the American’s face, I would have given a fourth round to the deposed champ.
And so after 36 minutes of slam bang action, I gave Pacquiao a 117-111 win (9 rounds against 3 for Bradley).
Two judges gave Pacquiao a similar 116-112 (4 rounds to Bradley) and a third judge saw it 118-110 (2 rounds to Bradley) for Pacquiao.
The unanimous decision improved Pacquiao’s record to 56-5-2, with 38 knockouts but, more importantly, it gave him the distinction of handing Bradley his first defeat after compiling 31 straight wins.
Yes, there was no knockout—again—for Pacquiao, but what the heck.
For one, Bradley came in all pumped up to defend the world welterweight crown he felt he had won fair and square in 2012 after earning a controversial split decision.
In short, he came prepared—a true mark of a champ.
When he fell short, failing in his defense—not badly, I must say—he was gentleman enough to say, “I lost to a better fighter tonight.”
And a better fighter doesn’t have to win by knockout all the time, all of the time.
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