UFC 147 Shows Quality of Product Slipping

The UFC used to be about top notch fights top to bottom.  I never thought I'd see the day but now we have a card with not a single good fight.  Even worse it is on PPV.  UFC 147 features two well past their prime fighters going at it in the main event with Wanderlei Silva against Rich Franklin.  In my opinion, this card is a big miss.  We need a card with JDS, Anderson Silva and Jon Jones fighting on it.  We need top notch product quality but what we have seen lately shows that the product is diluting.  This is a shame.

What did Bob Arum have to do with the Bradley Pacquiao decision?

Based on recent comments by world renowned boxing trainer Teddy Atlas on ESPN recently, there was a suggestion that Manny Pacquiao's contract with Bob Arum may have been ending and having Bradley win a decision would guarantee having Manny sign on again with Arum to get the rematch.  Was a coincidence that Bradley was heavily promoting the rematch even before the first fight?  Did Teddy mean that Arum somehow could have paid off the judges?  This is clearly the shadier side of boxing if anything at all.  It's scary to think about these types of scenarios but really the only thing that went wrong in this supposed plan is that Manny utterly destroyed Bradley.  Even a novice could see that - really there's no way the judges could have screwed this up.  Unless they were rewarded to I suppose.  Too bad that we'll probably never know the truth.

Manny Didn't Show His Killer Instinct Against Tim Bradley

Manny Pacquiao demonstrated that he has lost his killer instinct against Bradley.  Although he completely outclassed and destroyed Bradley proving he was by far the superior fighter, he lost the decision and did seem to get a bit bored at the end of the fight.  Instead of going all out for the kill and knock out which was easily possible, Pacquiao went soft and let Bradley survive.  Pacquiao was fighting a child - it was literally man against child in some ways but he let up a bit thinking it was too easy and he had it in the bag.  Assuming other factors weren't at play this could have cost him the decision.

I give Bradley credit for not throwing in the towel despite being bludgeoned.  There was a moment in the fight when Bradley's coach asked him if he wanted to continue and Bradley didn't respond very clearly but must of said "yes" since they didn't stop the fight.  I give Bradley huge credit for taking a beating and surviving until the end.  He was still standing and got huge gift for it.  This should be a lesson for those fighters who ever question toughing it out until the end.

Pacquiao and Bradley Ready to Go!

This time around Manny Pacquiao seems to be ready for his fight.  Last time before the Juan Manuel Marquez fight Manny was going through marital issues and partying too much with the drinking, smoking and womanizing that comes with that.  Now that Pacquiao has fully devoted himself to religion he is not doing any of that partying and focused on his family and training.  As a result, this camp was one of the best he's had.  Whether he's losing a step or religion has made him soft - it's clear that he is now as ready as he is going to be.  Bradley is a strong and slick boxer and very dangerous.  Manny needs to be very ready to counter Bradley and his approach.  Manny is also finally fighting someone his size.  It will be interesting to see it go down.  I would definitely order this one!