?Manny did not lose the title.? - Roach
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 22 Jun 2012
SAN FRANCISCO (PNA) ? In boxing, as in all other sports, championships are won, not handed out.
Two weeks after Filipino boxing hero Manny Pacquiao bowed to Timothy Bradley in a questionable split decision, his chief trainer Freddie Roach came out expressing his disgust over the verdict that cost his ward the World Boxing Organization welterweight crown.
?Manny did not lose the title, it was given to Bradley almost in a silver platter,? Roach told this writer in a telephone interview from his Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles.
?Bradley did not win it, the judges gave it to him,? he said in reference to the two of the three judges? decision giving Bradley the victory along with the Pacman?s 147-pound diadem.
?Everybody who watched the fight, from the sportswriters, boxing officials, plain enthusiasts saw Manny winning, except the two judges,? Roach said in a first interview he granted following the June 9 title bout held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
The 52-year-old Roach had to proceed to New York a day after the fight to attend his induction to boxing?s Hall of Fame then flew to Texas to oversee the training training of his other ward, Julio Cezar Chavez,Jr who made a successful defense of his world middleweight crown over Andy Lee.
Roach said the split decision was, to say the least, unfair to Pacquiao, who is being considered the best boxer pound-for-pound in the world in this era.
?Manny, as they said, is the face of boxing today. He is, in fact, considered the savior of the sport that is in a near dying state. Why do this to him?? he asked.
?What they did to him is unfair. Definitely, Manny doesn?t deserve what he got at a time when the WBO itself had honored him with a Diamond Ring,? Roach bewailed.
Roach was referring to the Diamond Ring WBO president Francisco ?Paco? Valcarcel awarded Pacquiao on the eve of the fight giving the Filipino the honor as the best ?Fighter of the Decade.?
Like many others, including Floyd Mayweather Sr., Pacquiao?s arch-rival, the incarcerated Floyd Jr., and his uncle and trainer Jeff, the figtht wasn?t even a close one that would have merited a draw decision.
?It was one-sided with Manny overwhelming Bradley in at least 10 of the 12-round encounter that only blind men, like the two judges, would decide it was a drawn fight or Bradley winning,? Roach lamented.
?Manny fought for a knockout as he promised, but seeing he was dominating the opening 10 rounds, he relaxed a bit in the remaining two,? he said by way of explaining Pacquiao?s not accomplishing what he vowed.
?It was a logical thing to do under the circumstances in order not to open himself to injury that might jeopardize his career,? he said.
Roach allayed fears expressed by some quarters that the 33-year-old father of four with wife Jinkee is in the downtrend and that the strength in his fists that sent several of his opponents into retirement has already abandoned him.
?Manny fought well and had been in control from the opening bell on. He was all over Bradley throughout the 12-round showdown and could have really stopped him had he not relented in the homestretch,? he said.
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