Promoter says Manny Pacquiao could make more than $25 million from Saturday’s fight

 By Kevin Iole

LAS VEGAS -- Manny Pacquiao will make in excess of $25 million for fighting Juan Manuel Marquez on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden and could reach $30 million if the fight does a brisk business, Top Rank president Todd duBoef said.

Pacquiao's guarantee on the Nevada Athletic Commission contract is $8.595 million, executive director Keith Kizer said Wednesday. Marquez will earn a guarantee of $3 million. But pay-per-view boxers like Pacquiao and Marquez earn much more than their guarantees.

Pacquiao will get a large chunk from his upside on HBO Pay-Per-View sales, which are expected to exceed 1 million and could equal the 1.3 million sales he reached for his Nov. 12, 2011, bout with Marquez.
Adding in foreign television money, that will easily put Pacquiao over $25 million, duBoef said.

DuBoef said closed circuit locations that show the bout are up from the 2011 fight between them, continuing what he said was a trend in Pacquiao fights. He said that despite the controversial result in his June 9 loss to Timothy Bradley, interest in Pacquiao doesn't seem to have waned.

"We're getting more of the bars and restaurants, the chains, the Hooters, the Buffalo Wild Wings, places like that, buying the fight," duBoef said. "If [interest in Pacquiao is decreasing], I am not seeing it."

 In a study of the highest-paid athletes from June 2011 through June 2012 done by Forbes, Pacquiao was second on the list with earnings of $62 million. According to Forbes, Pacquiao made $56 million in purses and $6 million in endorsements.

 Rival boxer Floyd Mayweather was No. 1 on the list, with $85 million in earnings, all from purses. Golfer Tiger Woods was third with $59.4 million in earnings.

Pacquiao and Mayweather each had two fights in the time period that covers the Forbes' study. Pacquiao fought Marquez on Nov. 12, 2011, and met Bradley on June 9. Mayweather fought Victor Ortiz on Sept. 17, 2011, and Miguel Cotto on May 5, 2012.

A fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao still would be the richest fight in boxing. Top Rank chairman Bob Arum said he thinks it could do close to 3 million on pay-per-view.

Arum said fans are sick of the negotiations, but said if the fight were made, the interest would percolate again.

Yahoo Sports: Manny Pacquiao's rise to stardom made possible by longtime trainer, confidant Freddie Roach

By Kevin Iole

LAS VEGAS – Manny Pacquiao was hardly a helpless waif in 2005, but neither was he the superstar boxer, influential politician and global icon that he would become.

It'd take a special relationship with a special trainer for Pacquiao to ascend to the level he's at today.

He fights Juan Manuel Marquez on Saturday in a pay-per-view bout at the MGM Grand Garden that, once again, is expected to sell in excess of a million units and should ultimately earn him more than $25 million.

Pacquiao's status now is unquestioned, but in 2005, he was just an above average boxer coming off a loss to Erik Morales. And losing was the least of his worries.

He owed millions to the Internal Revenue Service – the result, he said, of an illegal scheme between his managers at the time and his promoter. The fact is, he was earning far less than he was worth under an oppressive promotional agreement that made it unlikely he ever would become a major attraction.

At the urging of his managers, Shelly Finkel, Nick Khan and Keith Davidson, Pacquiao filed a lawsuit against his promoter, Murad Muhammad, and Muhammad's company, M&M Sports, alleging significant violations in the Muhammad Ali Act.

His career literally hinged on the outcome of the case. If he got free of Muhammad, he would be able to sign with a promoter who could help him generate the kind of money he'd need, not only to pay his massive tax debt but also to set his family up financially for life.

Pacquiao's trial attorney, Judd Burstein, told him he had a very strong case but that there are no sure things.

"Going through a trial is a very intense experience," Burstein said. "It's warfare. It really is."

Pacquiao had to be prepared to go to war in a country that was not his own and in a language in which he was not fluent. He had been betrayed by people he had trusted and didn't know whom he could believe or count upon.

One of the perks for a main event fighter in a Las Vegas match is a large suite. Pacquiao, though, didn't benefit from that. Muhammad took the massive multi-room suite for himself without telling Pacquiao it was his. He put Pacquiao into a small hotel room that was quickly overrun with dozens of friends, family and acquaintances who stayed with him.

Pacquiao's future in the spring of 2005 depended largely on his trainer, Freddie Roach. It was Roach who recognized Pacquiao's brilliance on a January day in 2001 that Pacquiao, on a lark, walked into Roach's Wild Card Gym while on vacation in Hollywood, Calif., in search of a workout.

Roach's wizardry helped turn Pacquiao from a physically talented but flawed boxer into a ferocious fighting machine, though he was far from a finished product after the loss to Morales.

Pacquiao and Roach were friendly at the time, but truth be told, Pacquiao wasn't sure who his friends were.

"Manny had been burned so badly by so many people," said Khan, who served briefly as Pacquiao's co-manager and is now Roach's agent. "He didn't understand the business and he didn't speak much English. He'd developed a relationship with Freddie and he started to feel like Freddie was the one guy he could trust."

Burstein said as he was preparing for trial, he "had a sense that Manny felt naked in America. I didn't know them before that point, but I got the sense at that point that here at least, Freddie was the center of Manny's universe."

Roach saw what he felt were abuses happening. He knew that television networks were paying Muhammad large sums of money to secure Pacquiao's services, but that Muhammad was paying Pacquiao only a small amount of it. The Ali Act requires promoters to disclose all revenue streams to the fighter, but Pacquiao wasn't getting it.

Roach brought it to the attention of Khan.

"At the time, I was concerned for Manny personally, not as a fighter, and so I decided to tell Nick Khan, even though some people thought I overstepped my bounds by doing that," Roach said. "My job was to train him to fight and not be involved in his business. But I just couldn't stand by and not say anything when I knew something bad was happening."

After Pacquiao's one-sided upset victory over Marco Antonio Barrera on Nov. 15, 2003, he asked Roach for advice. He had been in the U.S. for just shy of three years, but was beginning to get the sense that things weren't right in his dealings with Muhammad and business manager Rod Nazario so he decided to take them to court.

Much of Pacquiao's success at trial would depend upon Roach. He was the boxing expert who would have to convince the jury that Muhammad's treatment of Pacquiao was not typical.

Roach hit a home run with his testimony. The jury fell in love with him and the only question after Roach got off the stand seemed to be how much Pacquiao would win.

Marianna Morano-Amato was Juror No. 4. She has since become friends with Roach and Pacquiao and has flown to several of Pacquiao's fights as the fighter's guest. At the time, she knew nothing of boxing, but was taken by Roach and the special relationship she sensed between Roach and Pacquiao.

"Manny was sitting there at the table and he was just this very humble, very quiet, very sweet guy," she said. "Watching the trial unfold, this guy Murad Muhammad was really a creep. As the days went on and the trial progressed, there was no doubt in anybody's mind, especially mine, that Manny was being taken advantage of.

"As Freddie Roach got on the stand and I began to learn about him, the first thing that was obvious was the tremendous loyalty he felt toward Manny. It was so clear how much he cared about Manny and he wanted to guide him. It was obvious that he wanted what was best for Manny, whereas Murad Muhammad was this creep and a liar who took advantage of him."

Muhammad settled the case with Pacquiao as the jury was deliberating and has not been involved in boxing since. He was unable to be reached for comment.

In a strange way, though, Muhammad's actions helped Pacquiao in that they tightened the bond between Pacquiao and Roach. That led to Pacquiao signing with Top Rank and embarking on a career that would earn him well more than $100 million.

Roach was the unquestioned boss in those early years. He guided Pacquiao to a 7-1-2 record in the 10 fights from the time they began working together until the Morales fight just before the trial.

It was obvious Pacquiao was going to be a star if he was promoted the right way, which is why Golden Boy and Top Rank got into a heated battle for his services that led to them suing each other.

Not so obvious, though, was how good Pacquiao would actually become. Pacquiao and Roach worked together feverishly to improve, with no detail too minute to fix. By early 2008, Roach was convinced Pacquiao was as good as any fighter in the world.

"He worked so hard and he wanted so badly to be good," Roach said. "He was a great, great student. As a coach, you dream of getting guys with his talent who are willing to do whatever it takes to win."

Prior to Roach, Pacquiao was extraordinarily fast and had a deadly left hand, but he had poor balance, no right hand and was vulnerable to good boxers.

As Roach remade him, those flaws went away. All the time they spent together working on his boxing game and fighting for Pacquiao's promotional freedom brought them extraordinarily close.

At one time, the relationship was more like a father and son. Now, Pacquiao says it's evolved to more like they're brothers.

"Freddie had absolute power in those early days together with Manny," Top Rank chairman Bob Arum said. "As the years wore on, it became more of a two-way street. Manny matured as a person and became more worldly and he wasn't afraid to share his own ideas."

During the trial, the tension was overwhelming. Looking for something to do to relax, Pacquiao, Roach and Khan came up with a scheme. They decided to see who could have the smallest hotel bill.

To win, that meant no charging food or drinks to the room and no raiding of the in-room refrigerator.

"I said, 'Well, that's easy, I'll win hands down, because I don't drink,' " Roach said. "And I didn't charge anything, so I knew I had won."

But when he checked out, his bill was far higher than he expected. Not only did Roach not have the smallest bill, he had the largest.

It turns out, Pacquiao had charged things to Roach's room: Dinners, drinks, services.

"They all thought it was so funny that they got me," Roach said.

Their relationship will go down as one of the best trainer-fighter combinations in the sport's history. Arum compared it to the bond between Angelo Dundee and Muhammad Ali, as well as between the Petronelli brothers and Marvelous Marvin Hagler.

Morano-Amato said she's seen the humility of both men up close and thinks that ultimately, it's the reason why they are so close and have been so successful.

"After his last Morales fight, it was a very rough fight you might remember, and Manny asked for me to come to his suite," she said. "He wanted to thank my husband [Gerald] and I for coming to the fight and being supportive. What boxer does that? My first impression of him was of a sweet, humble guy, but the funny thing is, that's the guy he is in real life.

"And that's exactly how Freddie is, too. Neither of them wants anything from the other, but they care for each other so much. I'm not surprised they do well together because it's like they're on the same track all the time."

Fourth time's a charm: Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez have little to hide in rematch

By Kevin Iole

Yahoo! Sports

LAS VEGAS – Nobody better understands the problem Manny Pacquiao will face on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden when he meets Juan Manuel Marquez for a fourth time than "Jesse" James Leija.

Leija, the former super featherweight champion, faced Hall of Famer Azumah Nelson four times over a nearly five-year period, winning a unanimous decision in their last bout in 1998 to win the series 2-1-1.

As Leija went through his preparations for that fight, he was flummoxed at times. Leija understood he needed to change tactics, because after having been in the ring with the man known in boxing circles as "The Professor," for 30 rounds at that point, Nelson knew Leija extensively.

Leija, too, knew pretty much what Nelson was going to do by the way Nelson positioned his hands, by the steps Nelson would take in the ring, by the feints he would use. It became, in essence, a stalemate.


"Some people have this perception that it's easier when you've fought the same guy over and over, but they're wrong," Leija said. "It's more difficult; way more difficult. I knew what he had and what he liked to do, but he knew what I had and what I liked to do.

"You take Pacquiao and Marquez, these guys are the best fighters in the world. If you're Manny, say, and you want to finally get that decisive victory he's been looking for, what can he do differently that Marquez hasn't seen before?"

Pacquiao and Marquez will become the 13th pair of boxers to have fought each other four or more times in their Saturday HBO Pay-Per-View bout. In the last 40 years, it has only happened three other times.

Bobby Chacon and Rafael "Bazooka" Limon fought four times between 1972-85. Nelson and Leija met four times between 1993-98. Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez, Juan Manuel's younger brother, met four times between 2007-10.

The Vazquez-Rafael Marquez rivalry was compressed into a very short time frame. They first met on March 3, 2007, in Carson, Calif. Their third bout was less than a year later, also in Carson on March 1, 2008.

All three were physical, brutal affairs which sapped a significant amount from each man. Having to fight three hard fights in such close proximity took its toll.

 "I knew him so well and he knew me, because we didn't have a lot of time [between the first three fights]," Vazquez said. "By the time we got to the third fight, it was all about who was in the best condition and who wanted it the most."

Their fourth fight was 22 months after their third. From start to finish, they had 1,177 days in their rivalry. The Nelson-Leija series was contested over a four-year, 10-month span that was 1,776 days. But on Saturday, it will have been eight years, seven months and 3,137 days since the first time Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez faced each other.

The fights were remarkably close and compelling, with Pacquiao usually on the attack and Marquez countering him expertly.

Leija said Marquez is the second-best counter puncher in boxing behind Floyd Mayweather Jr., but he also said Marquez may be the sport's best technical fighter.

"He's by far one of the best technicians in the game, even better than Mayweather, and to tell you the truth, he may be the best," Leija said. "Mayweather is faster, bigger and stronger. He's got great defense and he can make you miss, and, with that speed of his, he takes advantage when you do.

"But if you want to show someone how to box, teach them how to be a pure boxer, you'd show them Marquez. Not everyone can be as fast as Mayweather and not everyone can have the defense that Mayweather has. But if you study technique and work on that, you can become a great boxer like Marquez."

Marquez has used that technique to great advantage in their three fights. Pacquiao has been the faster, stronger man and has put Marquez down four times.

Three of those knockdowns came in the first round of the first fight in 2004. Had referee Joe Cortez stopped the bout after that third knockdown, as often happens, there wouldn't have been a second fight, let alone a fourth.


But Cortez's decision gave boxing fans the gift of three sensational bouts and allowed Pacquiao and Marquez to become intimately familiar with their own – and their opponent's – strengths and weaknesses.

"He is a good counter puncher," Pacquiao said of Marquez. "He is very patient and sits back and waits for action. If I waited for him to throw the punches first, the fight would be boring. That's why I have always been the one to make the fight between us."

 Both have vowed to be more aggressive in the fourth bout, and Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach has insisted that because of the controversy regarding the scoring in the first three fights, the judges may exhibit a subtle bias toward Marquez.

"I've said this a lot and I've talked about it with Manny, but I feel like when the bell rings to start that fight, we're already going to be down three rounds in the eyes of the judges," Roach said. "They know each other so well that it's tough to really be too much different, but I think from our standpoint, Manny needs to be more aggressive and show that killer instinct he had when he was a younger fighter."

Saturday's fight figures to be the last between them. Marquez is now 39 and logic suggests he doesn't have much more time left in the sport. Pacquiao is 33, but he's a Congressman in the Philippines and his political career is burgeoning. He's probably going to be around for another 18 months, at most.

Both men desperately want a decisive win, but given the nature of the first three, it's unlikely they'll get their wish. So, even though it wouldn't seem to make sense for a fifth one, don't totally rule it out if Pacquiao-Marquez IV is as compelling as I, II and III.

"It's hard to imagine a fourth one," Pacquiao said, jokingly, when asked if he could imagine a fifth fight with Marquez.

Promoter Bob Arum, though, wouldn't close the door on the possibility.

"There is a possibility," Arum said. "[It's] not likely, but a possibility. [Sugar Ray] Robinson and [Jake] LaMotta fought six times."

The Pacquiao-Marquez rivalry is one for the ages. Years from now, historians will be debating their bouts. Leija, though, assumes he knows what they're thinking.

"You just don't want to see the guy [in the ring] again and you want to be done with it," Leija said. "It's like, 'Please, get me someone else; anyone else.' I fought 42 rounds with Azumah and every one of those 42 rounds were brutal. When that fourth fight was over, I was definitely ready to see someone else and I would bet you they'll say the same thing [after the fight Saturday]."

Yahoo Sports: Manny Pacquiao gives Hall of Famers Charles Barkley, Reggie Miller a taste of fight training

By Kevin Iole

photo: Chris Farina/Top Rank

One thing is certain when Manny Pacquiao is training for a fight: He'll never be lonely.

Pacquiao, who is preparing to face Juan Manuel Marquez on Saturday at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas for a fourth time, always seems to host a flood of celebrities. He recently gave Basketball Hall of Famers Charles Barkley and Reggie Miller a taste of what it is like to train for a fight.

Barkley and Miller chronicled their experience working out with Pacquiao at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, Calif., for a half-hour special that will air Thursday on TNT following the network's NBA coverage.

Miller ran with Pacquiao through Griffith Park in Los Angeles. Both men got in the ring with Pacquiao at the Wild Card, while Barkley spent time with trainer Freddie Roach.

I haven't had a chance to get a sneak peak of the footage, but Pacquiao was chuckling as he was watching Miller throw -- or, to be more accurate, try to throw -- a jab.

"As a boxing fan, it was one of the coolest things I've ever done," Barkley said.

Hopefully, Barkley's boxing form is better than his golf swing. Miller, for all his technical faults, said he enjoyed the time with the Pacman.

"As a professional athlete, it's always interesting to hear how other elite athletes prepare themselves for competition," Miller said. "Training with Manny was an experience I'll never forget."

The half-hour show, called "Charles & Reggie: Toe to Toe with Manny Pacquiao" will air after TNT's doubleheader ends Thursday. TNT will show the Miami Heat against the New York Knicks at 8 p.m. ET, with Dallas at Phoenix following at 10:30 p.m. ET.

Yahoo Sports: 50 Cent, the man to make the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight happen?

By Kevin Iole

Curtis Jackson is a former boxer, so perhaps the stamina he showed on Thursday shouldn't have been all that surprising. Jackson, the hip hop and rap star whose stage name is 50 Cent, clearly displayed an extraordinary aptitude for his new job as a fight promoter. 

Jackson stood in the middle of a sweaty boxing gym in Los Angeles, on his feet for hours, reeling off the same answers to the same questions time after time. His genius is that he has the uncanny ability to make each interviewer feel special, as if he were getting something new, different and better than the rest.

 The ability to find new solutions to old problems, as well as his salesmanship, is what has made Jackson one of the most successful under-40 entrepreneurs in the world.

His sales ability and business savvy might just be the variable that finally, after more than three years of agonizing and often bizarre negotiations, brings Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao to meet in what would be the richest boxing match in history.

Pacquiao has business to take care of ahead of a potential Mayweather fight, though. On Saturday, he'll meet Juan Manuel Marquez for the fourth time in a pay-per-view bout at the MGM Grand Garden. Their first three bouts were exceptionally fast-paced and action packed, but no matter what he did, Pacquiao hasn't been able to conclusively defeat Marquez.

A win Saturday and once again talk will pick back up about if and when Pacquiao will face Mayweather.
Jackson is positioned perfectly to make the fight happen. He's been Mayweather's long-time friend, but as a boxing fan he wants to see his buddy fight Pacquiao as badly as anyone.

He started to make maneuvers toward getting the fight done more than a year ago. He finally came up with the idea of creating a promotional company with Mayweather that they were going to call TMT Promotions. Working together, Jackson thought, might be the way to get the fight made.

But when Mayweather elected not to invest his half of the money in the startup, Jackson walked away and created his own company, SMS Promotions.

Jackson signed former featherweight and super featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa to a promotional deal, then quickly worked out arrangements with Top Rank CEO Bob Arum to get Gamboa onto the Saturday card featuring Pacquiao and Marquez.

"This is going to be a huge night for Gamboa, and a bigger night for boxing," Jackson said. "The kid can fight. I mean, he can fight. It's always good for boxing when you have exciting fights and that's what Gamboa's going to give."

Jackson scoffed when it was noted that all three of the fighters he signed – Gamboa, Andre Dirrell and Billy Dib – were poor ticket sellers and attracted few TV viewers.

Jackson promised to turn them into ticket sellers in short order.


If he's able to do it, it will be a feat akin to what he pulled off last month on QVC, the home shopping channel, where in nine minutes he sold $177,000 worth of headphones.

"I just made 177,000 dollars in 9min on QVC," he wrote on Twitter. "Can some one hate on me so I can know this is real life."

The next day he was back on QVC selling those same headphones as if they were bottles of water on a hot day in Las Vegas. He put up with the inane banter from the hosts because he was making extraordinary amounts of money as they yakked about his headphones and groveled about his stardom.

If he's going to play a role in getting the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight done, he'll have to find a way to make sense of the incomprehensible. Hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake and seemingly trivial issues are derailing the bout.

One of the big issues, Jackson said, is that Mayweather is incensed at how much money Pacquiao would make. Mayweather offered Pacquiao a flat $40 million for the fight, which would represent the highest purse of Pacquiao's career.

For a fight this big, even $40 million is a low-ball offer, and anyone with a modicum of business sense knows Pacquiao would have been foolish to accept that deal. But Jackson said Mayweather gets irate that fighters make so much money fighting him.

Mayweather, Jackson believes, wants the majority of the earnings for himself.

"Having to pay that kind of money really irritates Floyd," Jackson said. "He feels that when someone is making more money than they ever made, they shouldn't be asking for more. He feels like he's the star and he should be making the money and they should be thanking him for what he's willing to pay them."

He said Mayweather is "hand-picking opponents" and "looking for a reason not to take the [Pacquiao] fight."
This is a contrast to how Jackson perceives his role as a promoter: to make the fights fans want to see. He lavishes praise upon Top Rank for its way of doing business, and notes that Golden Boy does a good job.
But Jackson says few other promoters invest in their business and aren't willing to put their fighters in situations that could potentially hurt their investment.

"These guys have one fighter, one meal ticket, and you ask them if they want to fight and they aren't willing to take a risk with a guy like Gamboa unless they're at the end of the line and there are no other options," he said. "They want to protect what they have, and make sure their meal ticket keeps producing.

"Me, I look at it like this: We're going to make stars by putting our fighters in exciting fights. People want to see the best fighters fight each other and that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to invest in my fighters and invest in marketing them and promoting them, so we build an audience for them. I'm not going to sit around and let some TV guy tell me who my guy should fight and when and where."

It's smart business. He already looks better than the vast majority of promoters and he hasn't put on a show of his own yet.

If he can iron out the details and get the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight done, that's going to be nearly as impressive a feat as selling $177,000 worth of headphones in nine minutes.

Maybe, just maybe, 50 Cent is the right guy at the right time for boxing.

WBO to review Pacquiao-Bradley decision; Nevada attorney general might follow suit

 By Kevin Iole | Yahoo! Sport

More than a quarter of a century later, umpire Don Denkinger's mistake is available to be analyzed, over and over, on Major League Baseball's website.

 Denkinger called Kansas City's Jorge Orta safe at first base in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 6 of the 1985 World Series and the Royals went on to win. When they then won Game 7, they captured a championship they likely wouldn't have had Denkinger correctly called Orta out.

In boxing, however, there is no such simple mechanism to prove a bad call – or a perceived bad call – no matter how much Jim Lampley or Teddy Atlas scream and holler about it.

Boxing is perhaps the most subjective sport to judge. Two people can, and often do, watch exactly the same fight and evaluate it in dramatically different ways.

Manny Pacquiao lost Saturday to Timothy Bradley in a bout most experts – though not all – felt he deserved to win. Judge Jerry Roth scored it 115-113 for Pacquiao, closer than most ringside reporters had it. He was overruled by judges Duane Ford and C.J. Ross, who each had it 115-113 in favor of Bradley.

On Wednesday, the World Boxing Organization announced it would review the verdict with a panel of five international judges. Normally that would be sanctioning-body code for "we're preparing to strip Bradley and give the belt back to Pacquiao," though WBO president Francisco "Paco" Valcarcel told Yahoo! Sports on Wednesday that is not the case this time.

The WBO decision to examine the outcome of the welterweight title fight at the MGM Grand Garden comes on the heels of promoter Bob Arum on Sunday calling for an investigation by Nevada attorney general Catherine Cortez Masto, a sentiment that was supported by longtime Arum (and Pacquiao) ally U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.). Arum is the promoter for both Pacquiao and Bradley.

Outraged Pacquiao fans have petitioned Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval to overturn the result. Jennifer M. Lopez, the public information officer for the state attorney general's office, said via email it is office policy not to comment on potential or ongoing investigations.

However, Keith Kizer, the executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission, told Yahoo! Sports that the attorney general's office had requested information from him regarding the selection of the officials, the boxers' licensing and the judges' records as it related to past Pacquiao and Bradley fights.

That would seem to indicate that Cortez Masto is at least considering an inquiry. Lopez, though, would not confirm that.

"On Monday, June 11 Bob Arum, with Top Rank Inc., submitted a complaint about the decision in the Pacquiao/Bradley fight," she wrote. "We are treating this complaint like any other complaint our office receives. We will review the information submitted and take appropriate action if necessary. Per standard office policy procedures, we do not confirm or deny if we have an ongoing criminal investigation."

Long-time commission member Skip Avansino, now in his second term as its chairman, declined to say how he scored the fight. He said he did not know if Cortez Masto would order an investigation but said he believed in transparency and would cooperate fully with whatever she asked of his office.


He said he had asked Kizer to watch video of the fight with the judges. Kizer said he was awaiting receipt of a DVD so he could do so.

"I wanted Keith to go through the fight with them and test and vet their determination round by round," Avansino said. "If [Kizer] sees something, we should be advised about – let's look into it. And then, of course, certainly, we always have to consider whether there was some untoward behavior, any corruption or any kind of undue influence.

"At this point, I haven't any evidence of any of that other than looking at three seasoned professionals who have done a lot of good championship bouts for us. That's where I stand on it and I have been supportive of those judges for that reason."

Arum wants the investigation largely to clear his own name. After the fight, he went to great lengths to point out he did not accuse the judges of corruption.

"I want to make very clear, there was no chicanery going on here," Arum said shortly after the bout.
On Sunday, though, in a telephone call to Yahoo! Sports, he demanded the investigation. This was the first major fight of the social media age to end in a decision the public overwhelmingly disagreed with. Arum was taking as much abuse as the judges and was accused, without any evidence, of tampering with the outcome.

 The fact is Arum would have benefited more had Pacquiao won. Though a Pacquiao fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. might still be made, it would have been far more lucrative had Pacquiao defeated Bradley.
Prior to the fight, Bradley had made faux credentials and posters touting a rematch. But clearly Top Rank had other plans. In attendance Saturday night was Juan Manuel Marquez, who after the fight Top Rank planned on announcing as Pacquiao's next opponent in November.

There was a rematch clause in the contract, but this isn't unusual. Mayweather, for example, had one against Miguel Cotto when they fought May 5. It is standard operating procedure for stars, in this case Pacquiao, to have one.

Valcarcel said his organization would not strip Bradley of the title no matter what its independent review found. He said he would simply order a rematch. That would only differ, he said, if corruption comes to light, but he said he did not expect that.

"I have known Roth and Duane and Cynthia [Ross] for many, many years and they are wonderful, honest people and excellent judges," Valcarcel said. "We just want Nevada to consider all of the judges. Nevada picks its judges and we want them to consider who we recommend. I gave them a list of 20 judges, from all around the world – New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, everywhere – and they were great judges.

"I think this is a great opportunity for the ABC [Association of Boxing Commissions] and the sanctioning bodies to work together. I am not saying there was anything going on here, but I just think it would be important for Nevada, and all the states, to work with us on the selection [of officials]."

As it stands, allegations of fraud have been leveled against Ford, Ross and Arum. These allegations will continue, which is why Cortez Masto is being pressed to launch a formal investigation.

Like Denkinger, the judges made a call in a high-profile, significant sporting event.

But unlike Denkinger, theirs isn't one that can be proven right or wrong by a replay.

An investigation should prove that. Then, the business of boxing can move on, Pacquiao and Bradley can fight again and all of the conspiracy theorists can look for another issue.