Boxing serves up a “John Carter” style injustice…..
Okay, I know it’s a stretch — but for those of you who don’t know, my other blogging zone is the Philippines, boxing, and in particular Manny Pacquiao, who last night was robbed in a controversial split decision in which two of three Nevada judges awarded the fight to Bradley 115-113 in spite of the fact that everyone else in the universe had it as an easy win for Pacquiao. LA Times Round by Round had Pacquiao winning 117-111. Fox Sports Round by Round had Pacquiao winning 119-110. Both Las Vegas Review-Journal cards and The Associated Press scored the fight in favor of Pacquiao, all 117-111. Respected ESPN boxing guru Dan Raphael had it 117-109 for Pacquiao.
Anyway, for anyone over here at JCF who might be interested, here are the articles I’ve posted on this so far:
Pacquiao’s Bizarre split decision loss to Bradley is difficult to understand (Updates)
Roach: Bradley was Pacquiao’s “best fight since Cotto”
Pacquiao-Bradley: A Theory about what happened with the judges’ scoring
Now, as for likening the to John Carter — not sure how far that analogy goes but it does kind of feel similar in that you watch the fight and you see a comfortable win for Pacquiao that didn’t happen because of an injustice, and you watch John Carter and see a “winner” of a motion picture that will forever go down as a megaflop. It does feel kind of similar.
That said, in the case of Pacquiao there is a simple remedy — a November 10 rematch that will make everybody lots of money, and in the end this blemish on Pacquiao’s record will probably not greatly affect his position in boxing history. With John Carter, the blemish is much, much bigger and harder to erase — there is no remedy and the screwup — whether you’re in the camp that blames Disney, the camp that blames Stanton, or the camp that blames both–is not easily undone.
So while Pacquiao’s travail is worth a few articles today, our John Carter situation is one that deserves ongoing attention over the long run. I’ll have my 24 hours of boxing madness, then be back to normal and back to JCF.
One thought on “Boxing serves up a “John Carter” style injustice…..”
This poor decision by the judges delays the Mayweather and Pacquaio fight even more. It kind of upsets me now because I don’t think Pacquio can beat Mayweather anymore, I wanted to see a prime mayweather fight a prime Pacquaio. Now we are just going to see old fighters on the decline when they do fight. It’s just frustrating because Mayweather waited until Manny lost some of his freakish power and athleticism because he didn’t want no part of Manny 2-3 years ago.