SFGate: Oakland's Ward says Bradley should give belt back

 By Vittorio Tafur

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Super middleweight boxing champion Andre Ward says that if he were Tim Bradley, he would give the WBO welterweight title belt back to Manny Pacquiao.

Bradley won a controversial decision against Pacquiao on Saturday, and almost all of the reporters and fans in Las Vegas thought Pacquiao dominated the fight.

"It was a ridiculous decision," said Ward, who was at the fight. "Bradley lost the majority of the rounds. If it was me personally, I would admit defeat and say, 'Here's your belt back.' "

Bradley said after the fight that he would watch it again to see if he really won. But his comments got stronger later, saying he thought he "carried the fight with my jab" and that he was the "No. 2 pound-for-pound" best fighter behind Floyd Mayweather.

If Bradley did watch the fight again, he would clearly see that he lost, Ward said. Bradley didn't get one good punch in, Pacquiao said, and Ward agreed that Bradley's lack of power was evident.

"There was nothing there, nothing to suggest it was even close," Ward said. "If you were being generous, extremely generous, maybe you could give Tim four rounds and he loses 8-4. I love Tim, he is a friend of mine, but he has to know that he lost that fight."

Bradley should say that and give the belt back, Ward said.

"It's the right thing to do," Ward said. "It's a tough situation, but you gotta make a stand and that will help make sure that this kind of thing doesn't happen again. He won't lose any stock - in fact, his reputation would be enhanced.

"It would help us put the reins on this wild wild West situation that boxing has become."

Ironically, if Bradley had lost, he might be looked at more favorably by boxing fans.

"He has nothing to hang his head about," Ward said. "He hurt his foot early and he never gave up, took some good shots and hung in there."

Ward was at the Pacquiao-Bradley match to promote his Sept. 8 fight in his hometown of Oakland against light heavyweight champ Chad Dawson. Ward was stunned, like everyone else at the MGM Grand, when the split decision was announced.

"My first reaction was shock, then anger and then sadness," Ward said. "I have dedicated half of my life to this sport, and what happened Saturday is unacceptable. And it's going to continue to happen until there is a commission that starts to impose sanctions. There have to be investigations and punishments."

The executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission said he anticipates no discipline or review of the two judges who scored the fight 115-113 for Bradley. (The other judge had Pacquiao winning 115-113, while The Chronicle had it 119-109 for Pacquiao).

"That's a shame, because they're messing with people's livelihoods when they allow this to happen. It hurts the sport's credibility, it hurts the pay-per-view numbers. ... Boxing was doing great again after the Mayweather-(Miguel) Cotto fight, but one situation like this and we're back on life support.
"It hurts everybody. Everybody involved in the sport."

Vittorio Tafur is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: vtafur@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VittorioTafur