Dumbfounded

Dumbfounded: To fill with astonishment or perplexity. That's exactly how I felt on Saturday night as I stood in a bar in downtown Buffalo when the Manny Pacquiao/Timothy Bradley Jr. welterweight decision was announced. "Winner by split decision, and new WBO welterweight champion of the world, The Desert Storm, Timothy Bradley!" How could this have happened? Did I hear it wrong? The confusion between the fight that my eyes saw and the decision that my ears heard didn't match up. Not even close. The downtown bar that was completely filled for the free fight literally broke into a minute long hysteria. I'm good for watching a title fight from start to finish about once a year, and by no means am I an expert. But I know what I know, and Manny Pacquiao simply dominated Timothy Bradley from bell to bell. The outcome was a foregone conclusion to the point that the buddy who I was watching the fight with who had also bet Bradley on the money line (a $50 bet for Bradley paid about $150 depending on which odds you look at) had already chalked the fight up as a loss and subtracted the amount he bet from his winnings earlier in the night. And he wasn't the only one. The promoter for both fighters, Bob Arum, (who was outraged by the decision himself) went to the corner of Bradley after the final bell and heard the phrase, "I tried hard and couldn't beat the guy" from Bradley. Bradley's defeated words matched his body language after the fight too and it looked like he was the most surprised guy in the building when hearing his name called by ring announcer Michael Buffer. I don't want to automatically throw the two judges who scored in favor of Bradley into the Tim Donaghy category of fixed officiating, but ignoring the possibility by putting the claim in the same breath as a UFO sighting isn't smart either. I mean good God, look at the following sentence on paper: The champion fought 12 rounds, landed 90 more punches than the challenger, was never knocked down, was never stumbled, and lost the fight. In what world does that make sense?!? To better explain the travesty to my not so sports-savvy mother I phrased the decision like this: Imagine we all watched the Yankees play 9 innings, outscore the Mets 4-2, but 3 seventy-something year olds declared the Mets victorious after the final out. "But we would be able to see the runs on the scoreboard, wouldn't we?" Yes, she's right, but to most folks who watched the entire fight and scored it round by round it was that black and white. Even if there was some sort of back door deal to ensure a money making rematch I don't think we'll ever know for sure. I think ESPN boxing analyst Teddy Atlas put the judge's ruling best: "Corruption or incompetence." In my book both are equally shameful.