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Judges Ford, Roth defend unpopular Bradley-Pacquiao scores; 'This isn't American Idol'


Judges Duane Ford and Jerry Roth defended the scores that handed Timothy Bradley a split decision over Manny Pacquiao, Saturday (Sunday, PHL time) in Las Vegas, saying Sunday (Monday, PHL time) that they stood by their work. In separate interviews with Steve Carp of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the two shrugged off CompuBox statistics that had the Filipino ring icon dominating in every field, including total punches landed (34 percent to 19 percent), jabs landed (24 percent to 11 percent), and power punches landed (39 percent to 28 percent). "I thought Bradley gave Pacquiao a boxing lesson," said the 74-year-old Ford, who had it 115-113 for Bradley. "I thought a lot of the rounds were close. Pacquiao missed a lot of punches and I thought he was throwing wildly." Ford added, "This isn't American Idol. If I judge for the people, I shouldn't be a judge. I went in with a clear mind and judged each round." The 71-year-old Roth, the lone voice who gave Pacquiao the win, said, "I'm looking for effective aggressiveness. I thought Pacquiao won a lot of the early rounds, and I thought Bradley came on in the end. That's why I gave Bradley the last three rounds. But I still thought Pacquiao had done enough to win." Ford has been a Nevada judge since the late 1970s, while Roth started in the early 1980s. CJ Ross, the third judge, opted not to return calls or comment. Carp also interviewed Nevada Athletic Commission chairman Skip Avansino, who said, "We had three seasoned professionals working and I don't question their determinations. "Unless something is brought to your attention that there was improper behavior, we're not going to take any action. I'm not going to second-guess our judges." Pacquiao's manager, Bob Arum, has made noise that a rematch would be done somewhere other than Nevada, but the Pac-Man himself said he was fine with having more bouts in Las Vegas. "I prefer to fight in Las Vegas. I love Vegas, especially the MGM. They promoted a lot of my fights here. I prefer to come back here." - AMD, GMA News

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