Boxing has been around in various forms since the ancient Greek Olympics, it has had it's ups and downs, last night a new chapter in the history took place when one of the all time great fighters Manny Pacquaio took on the unbeaten but limited Tim Bradley at 147lbs, over the twelve rounds Pacquaio took Bradley to school.

During the fight Manny controlled the ring for almost 10 of the 12 rounds, showed greater aggression and power and threw 253 punches to Bradley's 159, in the first 4 rounds Pacquaio was utterly in control and as the fight progressed he continued to dictate the pace and flow of the fight.

However after the twelfth round with no knockout taking place the fight went to the three judges, from the Nevada Boxing Board, the first announced Manny had won by two rounds, then shockingly the other two judges awarded the bout to Bradley. Even Bradley admitted he would have to watch the tapes to see if he had won, not the sound of a man convinced of his ability, while he had shown good defence and endurance through the fight he had shown nowhere near enough to even be within 5 rounds of Manny on most peoples score cards.

The media have debated this issue overnight and I can't find one article awarding Bradley more than 3 of the 12 rounds, many have suggested the result was fixed to ensure a money-making rematch, unfortunately for all of us who paid for pay-per-view and stayed up most of the night, the idea of that is quite repulsive. Watching a truly great champion school a willing but limited opponent and then lose his tile is bad enough, immediately having the rematch clause shoved down our throats is equally galing. I would suggest the boxing board of control review the decision thoroughly, it simply wasn't fair and I have not read one person (Apart from obvious internet trolls) suggesting the true winner was announced after this fight.

Boxing commentators are questioning the ethics of the sport and suggesting this is akin to WWE wrestling where the result is pre-determined and only the crowd are left out of knowing this, while I don't think the fight was fixed, I do think the result was wrong and should be reviewed, just as the boxing board of control would review any other kind of wrong-doing in the boxing ring.

I have loved boxing for many years, watching Carl Froch show his steel and determination in beating Bute a few weeks ago was a joy, watching Kell Brook dazzle opponents or Pacquaio dominate through work-rate and power are enjoyable for all boxing fans, but this result really could damage the sport. With the awful state of Heavyweight boxing, the prospect of Haye and Chisora further tarnishing the sport with their sham fight and now this, the sport needs a great olympics to rekindle interest from fans who have been burnt.

I feel as though I had my wallet nicked after seeing the result last night, just as i'm sure the fighters put a lot into training for this fight, I stayed up late and paid to watch it, because of two really awful judging decisions I found myself disillusioned and disappointed in a sport which needs to keep its nose clean at all times due to the large number of people who want to denigrate it.

The two boxers put on a good fight and certainly didn't deserve this, if it was fixed this is a disgrace, if the boxing board of control do nothing about this, after their intervention in the Amir Khan fight when scorecards were allegedly tampered with, then they shouldn't be controlling the sport and if this issue isn't cleared up, not only will a number of fight fans probably switch off but I would imagine a number of boxing journalists and fighters might too.

A sad night for boxing, enclosed are a few quotes from people involved in the fight game:

* Fight Promoter Bob Arum about the judges: "I have the best eye doctor in the world. If they get on a plane to LA, I would pay for their visit."

* ESPN Boxing Analyst Teddy Atlas: "The bottom line is that if you're an honest man, if you're a competent person that knows what he's watching, Pacquiao won that fight. Only one man won that fight. And he doesn't get the decision.

It's an injustice to the sport, an injustice to the fighters, an injustice to the fan base and it's one of the fallacies...one of the problems with the sport of boxing right now that the wrong guy wins sometimes".

* Pacquiao: "I don't even remember him hurting me with one punch. Not one punch. Amazing what happened."

* ESPN Boxing Analyst, Nigel Bradley: "A tragic night for Pacquiao and boxing. It was perhaps the worse dec. I've ever seen. Anybody who thinks it was incompetence is a fool".


In Summary:

From reading the Guardian, Telegraph, Boxing News and the Daily Mail, I still haven't found anyone who thought Bradley won the fight, this will tarnish the name of boxing, alongside other recent events and make many question putting their hard earned money into watching it, I for one will be much more careful in the future about considering buying these events, from reading many in the sports comments this could prove to be a seminal moment in the sport which is losing viewers to MMA fighting all the time, without wishing to be controversial, the judging last night was amateur, incompetent and potentially corrupt, I don't wish to be a part of this any longer, it is just a shame for the fighters who dedicate their lives to their profession that they are let down so badly by these faceless goons.