I've been a lifelong boxing fan, it's been apart of my upbringing, my family, and just a huge part of my life in general. My dad who was a successful boxer in his day, started teaching me from a young age and helped develop me into a proficient boxer myself. I illustrate all this to emphasize how close to the sport I have been all my life and how much it's meant to me personally as both a pugilist and a fan, which leads me to my next statements.
I watched this fight live, and like every other big fight I kept my own scorecard. I had it 119-109 which equates to 11 rounds to 1. I gave Bradley the 10th round, and he only got that because Pacquiao clearly took the round off a bit and Bradley worked his ass off to make some kind of a comeback in that round. It was still apparent however that he was out of his depth against Pacquiao and just couldn't be effective enough to win the rounds. That being said, I was appalled when I heard the decision and a robbery of this magnitude has really put me off of boxing at the moment. It's not just this either, recently there have been two high profile fighters (you may not know unless you follow boxing) Lamont Peterson and Andre Berto who both tested positive for banned substances, scrapping two great fights that were to occur, and you have the ongoing back and forth between Floyd Mayweather and Team Pacquiao as either side does everything imaginable to keep the fight from happening which is rather discouraging, Paul Williams paralyzed, Shane Mosley and Antonio Margarito retiring, and it's been a rough go for boxing recently. I've heard of trial and tribulation but this seems to stretch past that.
I don't know if boxing can ever recover from a robbery as blatant as this. It's a shame because whether some of you are aware or not, there is a great talent pool out there right now from bantamweight on up to light heavyweight, and you have two of the most dominant heavyweights of all time in the Klitschko's. Boxing "talent wise" is actually in great shape, but with all the garbage that's surrounding that talent it has been a major detriment to the sport. Add to that the fact that due to boxing's prominence slipping, most of you probably couldn't name me a champion from each division(not including the sub-divisions just the straight up weight classes) which isn't a knock on any of you by any means, just a point to show the lack of fanfare and coverage. There have also been a lot of great fights over the last few years that may have went unnoticed to many folks who don't follow it as closely as a boxing nut like myself. The talent is out there, the fights are out there, the problem is that too many weight division, too many sanctioning bodies, and too many corrupt promoters, and sport authorities are also out there.
I think if you simply stopped people from gambling on boxing that would fix a lot of it. Once there was no gain outside of the sport other than having the best fighters and holding the titles, that would at least be a good start. Everything gambling touches it taints, combat sports are no different. The more money there is to be made and is involved, the easier and more likely it becomes that corruption of this nature can and will arise. I also think that in order to keep this kind of faulty judging from occurring there need to be strict, clear cut criteria set for judging a fight. As is, it's left to the judges discretion, meaning the judge can simply say "That's How I Saw It" without needing to provide any further explanation. That would be another big step in correcting some of the issues surrounding boxing.
The sanctioning bodies and multiple weight divisions are somewhat necessary and I don't think there is any way around it. Boxing is a world wide sport, and I think it would be somewhat unrealistic to expect ONE governing body to keep track of all the fighters around the world and to create the rankings on a world wide level to some extent. However, Futbol does it, so why can't boxing? You'd still have to have a lot of titles. You can't expect Britain to no longer have the British Commonwealth titles, it's a national title recognizing the best in Britain, and that goes on to a lot of other countries who do the same. It would still help though not to have 70+ sanctioning bodies diluting the rankings and titles. As it stands the system allows for fighters to amass numerous titles to show their supremacy, and fighters to still reach a championship level without having to be the one and only champion which is good because it sets up fights between champions, and gives everyone something to shoot for. It would be somewhat discouraging if you knew the only way you'd ever get a title is if you were the absolute #1 in the world. Instead you can get the WBC title, the IBF, IBO, WBA, you can be recognized by The Ring as the legit champion of a division, and there is room for everybody to succeed to some level and create competition. We just don't need so damn much of it. Take it down to being the few top recognized sanctioning bodies and allow national titles and nothing more. That would help identify the best of each nation, and then the best in the world. The weight divisions don't need to change either if you ask me. They are the way they are to make sure the fighters are a evenly matched as possible. Weight does make a difference, especially at that level. A good example was the Juan Manuel Marquez vs Floyd Mayweather fight. Marquez is a natural lightweight, and Mayweather a more natural welterweight. They fought at 145, which was higher than Marquez had ever fought, and the size and strength difference was so lopsided it made for a less than competitive fight. So, there is a reason you have a junior welterweight, welterweight, and super welterweight, lightweight, featherweight, middleweight, etc..... I do agree however that, that shouldn't necessarily equal that many more titles. there should just be the titles for those divisions and whether they are at the normal, junior, or super divisions that's what there is.
