Skip to main content

The Pacquiao-Bradley "Fix"

SERIOUS SUSPICIONS START to surface lately on the probability of a fix fight in the Pacquiao-Bradley split decision that had the Pambansang Kamao on the losing side. I thought I was the only one on this suspicion; but apparently not.

Many are actually asking this difficult question: is Manny Pacquiao involved in the fix?

If you still can remember rounds one through five, Manny behaved so much like the Manny we know--strong, fast, both in hands and feet. But when the bell rang to start Round 6, Manny slowed down significantly, perhaps around 70 percent of the Pacquiao we know.

Could that slow down be a cue for the "fix" mechanism to proceed?

There are many benefits for a setup of such a fix. First, that's supposed to be Manny's last fight before he hands his boxing gloves. Losing a fight that can be convincingly one later on after Manny has tested what Bradley can dish out was no unavoidable loss, but a strategic one. It gives Manny an excuse to fight at most two more even he already made public his plan to retire after the fight. No Filipino will fault him for giving Bradley a rematch because he has to in order to save his welterweight belt as well as his legacy in boxing history.

Second, this apparent show of "weakness" in Manny Pacquiao has a potential to flush out Mayweather into a career-crowning battle of the century. It is apparently the same gambit that he made in his earlier fight with Marquez, again to appear seemingly weak, to motivate Mayweather to come out of his hiding and fight Pacquiao in the ring.

Third, the guaranteed purse sharing and his share on the pay-per-view reviews will not change with the loss. Money-wise the guarantee was on.

Fourth, the appearance of being cheated his belt made Manny more a hero in the eyes of the boxing world because he obviously won the fight, but failed in the judges. The sympathy of the fans was with him.

Fifth, Manny can regain his prominent title in the rematch because he is obviously a better fighter than Bradley. A third fight can even be arranged in a financially rewarding manner.

These factors are simply too rewarding not to be tempting for the Pac-Man. Of course, it is not saying that he hatched this idea, or even worked in setting up on it. Someone could have persuaded him to play this game at least before he bows off from the sports for good.

If this fix indeed occurred, it is not difficult to see who arranged this to happen the way it had.

At the end of the day, in a fair game, the better athlete wins the game most of the time. If Manny can be honest about it, he could have won the game convincingly but he did not, by choice or what we still do not know (he still has to explain to us why he slowed down in Round 6). If there's a fixing involved then what we observed gives a telltale story of it.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Skirting the Issues of Bad Journalism

AMADO DORONILA of the Philippine Daily Inquirer writes today about the perceived coercion that President Benigno Aquino III made on the press in defense of his "passion for flashy cars," and for  his lifestyle as a "pampered son of a wealthy family living an unfrugal life." I encountered some confusion on how Mr. Doronila reasoned out his understanding on how frugal life is meant to be lived. Does he meant to keep the money on the vault unused simply for the sake of not spending them? That will be a suggestion for a miser's lifestyle. Aquino may have "bought," actually exchanged, a third-hand Porsche for his old BMW for approximately the same valuation of P4.5 million. In effect, there was no significant money spent for the acquisition, except perhaps a sales tax if that applied. And here Mr. Doronila concluded that the new President of the Republic is living an "unfrugal life" (did he expect Mr. Aquino to sell the luxury car he had befor...
Post a Comment
Read more

Substate-of-a-Gun

THE MORO ISLAMIC Liberation Front (MILF) boldly declared that Muslims be allowed to run their government even "if they go to hell by their own making, so be it." I go for a lasting peace in Muslim Mindanao; but I have serious doubts on real peace when these armed Muslim leaders cannot accept the fact of life that Mindanao is no longer a Muslim territory after Muslim settlers took the land from the Lumads in the prehistoric Philippines. I came from Zamboanga, and grew there. Despite MILF's claim of representing the dream of Muslims in Mindanao, I have serious doubts if the leaders are merely using this separatist slogan for their own aggrandizement. Look at ARMM under MNLF's Nur Misuari who had nothing to show for the tax shares it received from the government. And reports had it Misuari kept a huge sum from this money for his own accounts. So I have so much reservations on the lasting peace settlement with the MILF can bring. First, how much really of our Muslim si...
Post a Comment
Read more

Embarrassing Pull Out

THE THING WITH the latest pull out of the Philippine military vessels from the disputed Panatag Shoal gives me a feeling that we have embarassed ourselves for getting duped into withdrawing from standing put in defending that claim. The current statement from the Chinese foreign ministry seems to say that the Philippines has the only responsibility to keep the tension down in the area; not the overreaching China. Somehow China managed to stand pat on its stubbornness in "defending" what is "hers" from the Philippine claim. If the Philippine politicians fail to get the message, then we as well admit our claim as much weaker (of low resolve) compared to that of China. Imagine leaving the Panatag Shoal on the excuse of protecting the government military vessels from bad weather. That's hollow-sounding to me considering that Chinese policy considers such a move a non-issue on their part. So much for our resolve to claim wha...
Post a Comment
Read more