Why does everyone think Bradley lost round 5 on the cards?

The fifth round was key.

All three judges had it the same going into that round; 3-1 Pacquiao, 39-37. Assuming no knockdowns would occur in the fight, should Pacquiao have won the fifth round he would need only two more rounds out of the last seven to build an insurmountable lead. Boxing produces these swing rounds sometimes. The difference between 4-1 and 3-2 is bigger than the single point it represents. If, and I want to stress that word, if these judges were looking at their cards thinking about how to make things come out for Bradley it is very difficult for them to score that fifth round for him and come out with anything better than a draw.

Pacquiao put the hurt on Bradley at the end of the fourth but came out quite quietly at the beginning of five. Bradley, too, was reticent and landed nothing of note in the first minute, hitting Manny’s gloves and forearms with a selection of jabs and a right hand, probably taking the first minute of the round with two jabs to the body. A half-landed one-two at the top of the second minute brought Pacquiao back into the round and I felt he moved into the lead for the first time at 1:53, once again utilizing that hard straight behind his jab. Bradley, showing no arbitrary head movement whatsoever, was being timed as he tried to employ a reaction-based defense. Between 1:50 and 1:40 they hit each other’s gloves and then swapped jabs. A succession of misses by Pacquiao and Bradley’s landing on Manny’s gloves ran the clock down into the final minute. There is perhaps an argument here that Bradley’s volume punching, despite the fact that he was on the retreat throughout the round, may have brought him back into contention but it is important to note that he had not landed any punches of merit at all in that time. The argument appeared to be over, however, when Pacquiao rocked Bradley back on his heels with short left hand on forty seconds. Following this up with a jab, he bored forwards, forcing Bradley to the ropes in front of him before landing another left hand at which point Bradley rightly clinched. After being separated they fought up close for a few seconds with Pacquiao doing the meaningful punching. Bradley seemed momentarily hurt once more as they fought against the ropes at ten seconds. Untidy fighting was punctuated by a Pacquiao left hand in an otherwise rather meaningless exchange.

Bell.

Judge Jerry Roth scored the round for Pacquiao. His part in our story ends now. I don’t particularly care for his 115-113 scorecard but he got the right winner, both in the fight and in round five.

Inexplicably, judges C.J. Ross and Duane Ford had scored the round for Bradley.


http://www.boxing.com/pacquiao_robbednow_nobody_is_safe.html