This is the popular perception for a fight scenario that will last up to the 12th round, or even in a situation where Pacquiao scores a knockdown or a series of knockdowns in the early rounds.
The reason is obvious. Fight fans have a number of precedents to say and conclude that Pacquiao will be on the losing end if he remains standing by the end of the 12th round.
They know that Las Vegas is Mayweather’s home court and a hometown decision is always possible, as shown in many fights in the U.S. and in many countries around the world. This seems to be normal in the sport of boxing as well as in other sports where decisions of judges are final and not subject to appeal.
A case in point was the controversial fight between Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley in 2012 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas where Pacquiao lost the fight via a split decision on judges’ scorecard.
A tabulated result of the unofficial scorecards furnished by members of media who were present during the fight and others who were watching live on cableTV, show that Pacquiao clearly won the fight on points.
Of the 55 media people who submitted their scorecards including HBO’s Harold Lederman, Espn’s Dan Rafael and Nigel Collins, Ring Magazine’s Ryan Songalia and Michael Rosenthal, Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports and LA Times’ Lance Pugmire, among others, 52 had Pacquiao the winner while only three saw Bradley winning over Pacquiao.
Because of the controversy, the World Boxing Organization (WBO) appointed five veteran boxing judges to review the video of the fight and they all came up with scores in favor of Pacquiao. WBO Preident Francisco Valcarcel clarified though that the decision of the five judges isn’t binding because of the finality of the original decision.
Another typical controversial hometown decision was the fight between Amir Khan and Lamont Peterson in 2011 that took place at the Washington Convention Center in DC which robbed Khan of his WBA (Super) & IBF light welterweight titles.
Hometown crowd and fans numbering over 8,000 were rooting for Peterson, who was knocked down by Khan in the first round but got questionable foul calls by the referee as the fight progressed. Peterson was born and raised in Washington DC
Peterson was awarded a split decision despite the perceived flawed scoring by the judges. Khan’s camp appealed the controversial verdict and later a rematch was ordered by WBA.
These typical hometown decisions could happen to Pacquiao again if the fight drags to the last round as Mayweather will try to keep a safe distance from Pacquiao’s perimeter defense.
Pacquiao’s best option would be to go for a knockout win possibly in the early rounds to prevent the fight from slipping to the later rounds where he will be most vulnerable to Mayweather’s hit and run tactic.
