Quote Originally Posted by uptoscratch View Post
To your first point, "stop and think," I would contend that anyone who is arguing that Bradley won or that it was a close fight that could have gone either way has already stopped and thought about the fight.

The folks in the media carrying on and toting around proverbial pitchforks, are the people who, in my opinion, have not stopped or thought. They're just echoing what they heard on the broadcast and from a few outspoken commentators.

Neither Compubox, nor Tim Bradley, nor Sportscenter, nor Roger Mayweather are perfectly objective or infallible sources of truth.

1. Compubox is a computer program that is operated by humans. It operates on a punch-by-punch basis, instead of a round-by-round basis, but that doesn't mean it's impervious to error. Humans still input the punches and they can be swayed by crowd noise and biases just as judges and commentators can.

2. Tim Bradley gave an honest answer and said he'd watch the fight to see how it went. That doesn't play into my opinion of the bout any more than the 1000s of boxers who all say they thought they won. I'm sure if Bradley knew that the media would hold his answer against him to further discredit his win he would've given the standard boilerplate response of "Of course I thought I won the fight."

3. Sportscenter anchors know as much about boxing as they do about nuclear physics. If I want an opinion on what hair gel to use, I'd listen to them carefully and respectfully. I'll determine my boxing opinions without their input.

4. Roger Mayweather has a huge financial interest in 1) preserving Pacquiao's drawing power for a fight with his nephew; and 2) in making sure that high-status, high profile fighters like Pacquiao -- and his nephew -- get the benefit of doubt from the judges in future contests even if it's not clear they were the better man in the ring.

I scored the fight a draw myself. If pressed to favor one man over the other, I would've favored Pacquiao after my first watch. But the more I read from disgruntled fans telling me I need to watch the fight over again, the more I am impressed by what Bradley was able to do.
Good post overall. However, I disagree with your assessment about Compubox for this fight. I'm perfectly aware that Compubox is not an exact science and can't be used to gauge an entire fight based on the total punches landed/thrown. But it also shows punches landed on a per round basis.

That being said, even if Compubox made an error in their tally - say give or take 20 punches for each fighter, it still stands that Pac clearly out landed Tim by a wide margin. In terms of power punches alone, Compubox had Manny out pointing Tim by almost 2 to 1. Not even close. I would agree with your assessment if the figures were closer but the margin on this fight seems to be definitive in Pac's favor.