By Jason Kim: WBA/WBC super middleweight champion Andre Ward counts newly crowned WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley as one of his friends, yet Ward still believes that the 28-year-old Bradley deserved to lose to Manny Pacquiao last weekend in their fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Bradley pulled out a close 12 round split decision with two of the judges giving him the win with identical 115-113 scores.

Ward said “Listen, I love Tim Bradley, he’s a friend. This is not his fault. Tim lost the fight. That’s all I can say. I feel bad for all parties involved. All parties. Wow!”

The thing of it is Bradley is the winner, and there’s no turning back on that. The judges gave him the decision, just as they gave Pacquiao a controversial 12 round decision over Juan Manuel Marquez last November. It’s unpredictable how the judges will see a fight, because they sometimes look for different things that normal boxing fans look at. Judges tend to take on an entire round, and look for things like who’s controlling the action rather than which fighter is landing the harder shots.

Pacquiao can get a rematch with Bradley if he wants it. He has a rematch clause in the contract, and Pacquiao already said he wants to face him again. The only thing that might prevent the rematch from taking place is if promoter Bob Arum is able to persuade Pacquiao to wait a while and face Marquez first before he takes on Bradley. That be a good alternative for Pacquiao, because Bradley isn’t going anywhere.