Pacquiao vs Bradley: Judge Jerry Roth Disputes Controversy, Says Fight Was Close

This past Saturday night in Las Vegas, judge Jerry Roth was the only one of the three ringside judges to score the Pacquiao vs Bradley fight for Manny Pacquiao, giving it to the Filipino superstar by a score of 115-113, seven rounds to five.

Like judge Duane Ford, who recently defended his 115-113 Bradley score, Roth felt it was a very close fight, and that Pacquiao's fade down the stretch of the bout cost him. He spoke with ESPN 1100 in Las Vegas about the bout, leaving only C.J. Ross (who also had it 115-113 for Bradley) yet to publicly comment on the scoring.

"I thought in the early part of the fight Pacquiao was doing very good. In fact I gave him five of the first six rounds. Then in the latter part of the fight I thought he just didn't do enough. He didn't have that killer instinct he usually has. He was sort of backing up, Bradley was coming on and I thought coming on fairly strong. That's why I gave four of the last six rounds to Bradley and ended up a two point fight, seven to five."

Roth also believes that anyone scoring the fight 11-1 (119-109) was way off-base:

"I'm completely surprised at anybody that could score the fight 11-1. I don't know how they could've done something like that. We judge round by round. We sit there for three minutes, judge the round and give the scores to the referee and that's it. We don't talk about in the fourth round how we scored the third round or talk to people to our left or to our right, we're concentrating on that fight and that fight only. How anybody could see that fight so one-sided is beyond me. I just can't fathom that somebody could see such a fight so one-sided."

Personally, even though I feel Manny definitely won the fight, my take after a few viewings was that a 9-3 or 8-4 Pacquiao card seemed about right. I do believe that 11-1 is overboard. When folks say, "To score it 7-5 for Bradley, you have to give him every single close round," or the like, I think of 11-1 as giving Pacquiao every single benefit of the doubt in every close round. So what's the difference there, other than the right guy would have won if they all called it 119-109? There are at least two clear-cut Bradley rounds in that fight. If wrong is wrong, then wrong is wrong, you know what I mean? You know what I'm saying?

Pacquiao vs Bradley Results
Bradley SD-12 Pacquiao | Arce NC-2 Rojas
Bailey TKO-11 Jones | Rigondeaux TKO-5 Kennedy

Post-Fight Fallout
Arum 'Ashamed' of Boxing | Judges Scorecards (Photo)
Full Fight Video Highlights | Manny Wants Rematch in Vegas
Winners and Losers: Manny and Bob Win, Bradley and Marquez Lose