With a loss to Bradley, you surely must smell danger for Pacquiao

By Boxing News - 08/13/2012 - Comments

Image: With a loss to Bradley, you surely must smell danger for PacquiaoBy Babatis Banda: The complaints about how Manny Pacquiao was robbed in his 12 round decision loss to Timothy Bradley last June, or how the judges were incompetent are plainly a waste of time. There is nothing, not even a 100 replays of the tape will ever produce a win for Pacquiao. While it is acceptable for champions to lose once in a while, greatness will never be defined by unending poor performances.

Even if a panel of 100 judges were put up to review some of these recent controversial bouts, Juan Manuel Marquez will never take a win over Pacquiao in their last bout and in the same manner, Pacquiao took a genuine loss against Bradley and it is on record.

I commend Pacquiao for taking his loss as a man should, the complaints and excuses are fortunately emanating from his fans, and it is 100% understandable, especially in the back-drop of their claims on how Bradley would be maimed, bruised, crushed and then carried on a stretcher to the hospital. My genuine concern is what lies ahead of Pacquiao if he gets into the way of a really hungry, young fighter. I know Bradley was considered a hungry and determined fighter, but he was really slow and open, very open. Bradley seemed timid and did not to have any solid game plan. I can only imagine what Floyd Mayweather Jnr could have done to such a target.

Luckily, Pacquiao is in some luxury. He still basks in past glory and can still fight Marquez and Bradley into another dead-lock or indeed, a fourth or a second controversy. A loss to Bradley, rightly or wrongly judged, should be of concern to any supporter of Pacquiao. We can choose to ignore it as part of the game, but it could be an indication of worse things to come. Outside of Arum’s corral, wolves and hyenas are on the loose and will tag him in the same manner Amir Khan was tagged.

The only intelligent thing to do for Pacquiao is to ensure his next fight should be Mayweather. He can get Mayweather into the ring if he really wants to, at least Arum has indicated that he can. His stocks are still considerably high, though lower than they were before the Bradley loss. Another loss would be a disaster, both for the Mayweather fight and for his legacy. It would seal and cement the incessant insinuations of having come off the stuff. True or false, no one will have the power to silence the critics and no one would wash the tag away right into the history books. What is even worse is the ugliness it brings to Pacquiao’s fight record. The record of a legend must never be mistaken for a goods train.
As ugly as they may be, these are facts that anybody should not ignore, especially the Pac-team including Arum, the man who runs the joint.



Comments are closed.