Pacquiao’s Loss Not Fixed—Commission

Eight of the 12 rounds could have been scored either way when Manny Pacquiao lost to Tim Bradley last month.

“It was a very close fight. I thought the judges handled it well,” Keith Kizer, the Nevada Athletic Commission executive director, said this week.

Kizer has discussed the result with the three judges and reviewed a video replay of the fight, round by round, to discuss their scoring. He was satisfied with their efforts, he said.

“It is unfortunate that people reacted the way they did after the fight. The judges did a great job.”

Nevada’s state attorney general’s office announced this week that it had found no wrongdoing by officials in the fight on 9 June.

But the investigators interviewed none of the judges involved in what was considered by most fight fans an injustice to Pacquiao.

Catherine Cortez Masto, Nevada’s attorney general, said her top investigator had spoken to members of the state athletic commission and gaming board and found no evidence of criminal acts, including match-fixing or unusual bet patterns.

But that will do little to change the feelings of Pacquiao’s fans who howled in disgust after two judges ruled Bradley at 115-113 winner. Pacquiao was given a 115-113 victory by the third judge.

“Displeasure with the subjective decisions of sporting officials is not a sufficient basis for this office to initiate a criminal investigation,” Cortez Masto told promoter Bob Arum in a letter.

“Unless evidence beyond mere displeasure is forthcoming this matter will be considered closed. While there may be strong disagreement with the decision, the exercise of professional judgment by individuals officiating at a sporting event is not by itself a criminal investigation.”