There seems to be a couple of conspiracies pervading this thread that Arum was behind Bradley winning on Saturday night. I disagree with those conspiracies. If you disagree with the outcome of the fight, chalk it up to judicial indeptitude, nothing more. You have a right to have a jaded view of fight outcomes, but in loss Pacquiao isn't as financially lucrative for Arum as in win.
  1. It is Pacquiao's last fight under Arum and Bradley is at the beginning of his contract with Arum. Thus, it makes sense that Pacquiao loses because Arum has Bradley, the winner, under contract. This makes no sense because (1) we have no idea if Pacquiao will re-sign with Arum or if this is indeed Pacquiao's last fight with Arum. At the least, this is premature, at the most, it is wrong. (2) Bradley isn't a popular fighter. Among boxing fans and the casual fan, Bradley is not well-thought of. He doesn't have a rabid fan base. It would make more sense if this were Brandon Rios. Tim Bradley, not so much. In the alternative, why not Mayweather? If Arum wanted to cash out on Pacquiao, why not do it with Mayweather where he'd earn much more money.
  2. Arum influenced the judges to have Bradley win so that he could stage a rematch. This presumes the fight was a financial success and that its success could be repeated because the outcome was controversial. All signs appear to indicate that the ppv numbers on this fight are low. It was the first time where empty seats could be seen at a Pacquiao fight and where tickets were going for below face value the day of the fight. It may be Pacquiao's lowest number of ppv sales since Clottey. Why Arum would want to repeat a relatively unsuccessful fight when he could make more money putting Pacquiao against a bigger name isn't logical. Moreover, he could have staged a rematch even if Pacquiao had won.
  3. Bradley's victory is a way to postpone a Mayweather fight because the rematch gets in the way of a Mayweather fight. This doesn't make sense either because Mayweather has no plans to fight again this year. Arum has reserved 11/10 for a Pacquiao fight. Canelo is on 9/15. Does Mayweather have a fight date on reserve? If Mayweather isn't fighting until 2013, the rematch won't affect any potential for a Pacquiao-Mayweather fight.