On a recent radio interview with The Boxing Lab, Bradley expressed his dislike in how boxing fans reacted to the decision, and reminded them that watching the fight without the sound will change everyone’s mind:
"Everyone is saying I should give the belt back but I'm not giving the belt back. Everyone can forget about that. I won the fight. Everybody turn down the volume and watch the fight. You can see I won the fight," stated a clearly upset Bradley.
Of course, giving back the belt is not necessary and probably not an easy thing to do had he wanted to return it.
The only way Bradley can lose his belt now is if the Nevada State Athletic Commission reverses the decision. As a matter of fact, the NSAC has plans to review the decision with every judge separately to make sure they made the right choice, and to understand how they arrived to that conclusion.
Maybe doing this will provide the right insight into what the judges had going through their heads as they scored the fight the way they did:
“I just watched the replay last night without any sound and you need to see the punches and how many times I connected and how many times Manny connected. Boxing isn't just about landing the biggest punches. That is why they have judges. Pacquiao is throwing punches and missing and the crowd is going crazy yelling. Pacquiao misses a punch and the commentators say how he hits me while I land a punch and they don't say anything," Bradley continued.
In a way, I can see what Bradley is talking about, but it’s important to remember that volume is crucial in a fight like this. This is not a heavyweight bout, thus the fight will rarely be judged based on a dozen of total punches landed.
Both Bradley and Pacquiao wanted to fight an aggressive fight, and in a way, both let their hands go.
Having said all that, the judges and the commentators don’t communicate with each other in making their decision. Thus, pointing fingers at the commentators about how they called the fight and possibly influenced the decision is absolute nonsense.
Both fighters—as well as the rest of the world—should soon hear from the NSAC and the WBO on their finding about the accuracy of the scores and the final decision.
