Rant

This week has been fun and busy. Busy, but fun. Last weekend was Father's Day, celebrated in dozens of countries. Happy Father's Day, to those of you whom it matters! Like my brother, for example; his first Father's Day! Why isn't there an Uncle's Day? I wanna be celebrated, too! Haha. (My niece is adorable!)

As I mentioned earlier, I am now the co-president of an organization here in Japan. The committee and I have been working hard to plan and coordinate events that are coming up very soon. There was a big hullabaloo about it earlier because someone had suggested a new location, and all of a sudden, out of laziness, everyone (including me) were saying, "alright...yeah...sure..." It seemed like the event was completely decided without even discussing it. So once we started discussing it with people outside of the group (potential attendees), everyone was turning it down. And it made me think, "hold up, we never thought it through in the first place. Why are we going for this place anyway; whatever happened to the original plan?" Anyway, just all the discussion tires me out.

Played some more SFXT yesterday; since I leveled up to C+, I have been facing harder and harder opponents. So tough, in fact, that I had a net loss in BP yesterday (dammit!) and I'm actually now below the number of points necessary to level up to C+. Sigh.

Okay, so my biggest rant has to do with boxing. I finally got around to watching Manny Pacquaio's latest match, against undefeated champion, Timothy Bradley. Watching the match, it was clear as day that Bradley had no chance against Pacquaio. Manny was stronger, faster, dodged more/better, and got way more hits in than Bradley. I was expecting Manny to knock out Bradley; he had lots of chances, but he's just too damn nice. The way the rounds went were as follows:

Round starts. The boxers get close. Bradley tries to attack; Manny either blocks or dodges. With one minute left in the round, Manny switches from defense to offense and starts pummeling Bradley, getting tons of hits in while still managing to dodge Bradley's retaliations. This is how the fight basically went. This same sort of pattern for 12 rounds. I was really expecting Manny to turn up the heat and knock Bradley out. I really wish he did.

Finally, it's decision time. First judge scores it 115-113, Pacquiao. Second judge scores it 115-113, Bradley (wtf, really?). Third judge scores it 115-113, Bradley. And he was named the new WBO Welterweight champion. Everyone was shocked. Harold Lederman, a celebrated boxing judge and analyst who always comments on the fights as they happen, was shocked. He scored it 119-110, in favor of Manny. ESPN, CNN, Associated Press, Yahoo, and many other sports and news outlets judged the fight themselves, and all have given it in favor of Manny.

What a controversy. Even Bradley didn't think he won. The look on his face when they announced his win was complete surprise. Kinda like, "Man, what a loss. Oh well, I tried my best. Wait wuuuuuuuuuuuut??? I won???" I'm sure that went through his head, verbatim. Manny was asked after the fight if he thought he won. He said, "Yes, absolutely." I completely agree.

The judging was such a controversy that the president of WBO asked five world-renowned judges from around the world to watch the match and judge it for themselves. All five judged in favor of Pacquiao.

The three judges used at the night of the fight were all from Nevada, hired by the state commission. If they were the same judges who judged Pacquiao's last much, which was against Juan Manuel Márquez, I wouldn't be surprised. I think that Pacquiao should not have been given the "win" on that fight. If the three judges are the same, then maybe they were trying to make up for their mistake in their past judgment call? If they are the same, then this confirms their blindness, as they misjudged two times in a row.

I have no doubt in my mind who really won that match. I think they're planning on scheduling a rematch this November. I will try to make weight for that fight, too (boxing welterweight is a 147 lb. weigh-in). It just pisses me off that Manny's win streak has been tainted because of poor judgment.

The exact same thing happened to a good friend and martial arts training buddy of mine. He was part of our dojo's kickboxing team, and he partook in a boxing match. He was beating the other kid down pretty bad. It was a sure win. So he let up on the last round (or two?), only to have the judges give it to the other guy.

Stupid judges.

/endrant

Articles:
http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/8079349/wbo-review-timothy-bradley-manny-pacquiao-fight-unanimously-scores-pacquiao
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/boxing/story/2012-06-20/Pacquiao-wants-rematch-with-Bradley/55725906/1

Word of the day: 盲目　「もうもく」　"moumoku," or "blindness;" literally "blind eye." The first kanji, 盲, can also be pronounced めくら "mekura", which means "blind," "blindness," or "blind person," but I believe it is more commonly used in conjunction with another kanji. 盲人 (moujin) would be "blind person," where the second kanji literally means "person."