Huge sports day, on both sides of the Atlantic.

Maria Sharapova winning the French Open women’s championship, giving her a career grand slam. Her tennis future was bleak a few years ago, after shoulder surgery, but now she is back to No. 1 in the world.

Two more games in Euro 2012, including Germany 1-0 over Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo.

LeBron James and the Heat finishing off Boston’s old guys in Game 7.

The Kings gacking away another chance to win their first Stanley Cup. (And how what percentage of Kings fans now are considering the very real possibility that they are going to blow every bit of that 3-0 lead and will lose this in seven? About 90 percent? Maybe 95 percent? Would the franchise be able to recover … in this century?)

The Belmont Stakes, run even without I’ll Have Another, who could have been going for a Triple Crown.

And then the late news out of Las Vegas: Manny Pacquiao losing a deeply unpopular welterweight title decision to Timothy Bradley at the MGM Grand.

I have seen only snippets of the fight but read a lot of the outrage at the decision. Which reminds me of this truism of boxing:

Any time you leave it in the hands of the judges, something weird can happen.

People with short memories are claiming this is “the worst decision ever” … and lots of pledges are coming in from fans vowing never to see another boxing match.

I’ve heard all that before.

I was a three-hour drive from Las Vegas for much of my journalism career, and I’ve covered a lot of title fights (maybe 25, 30?), and I’ve been surprised by many decisions. (And don’t even get me started on boxing in the Olympics, pre-mechanical scoring.)

Many observers, including me, believed Oscar De La Hoya had won no fewer than three fights that he lost via split decision. Including two with Shane Mosley, in 2000 and 2003, and the so-called Fight of the Millennium versus Felix Trinidad in 1998.

Several factors might have influenced the two judges who called it for Bradley over Pacquiao, who is particularly popular here in the UAE because of our large (500,000-plus) Filipino population.

–Look at this video of Pacquiao, made shortly after the fight. Manny looks like a guy who got beat up. And he also seems bereft of the fury that a man who believes his title was stolen from him ought to have.

–The judges had to be aware of the controversial decision given in Pacquiao’s favor in his previous fight, with Juan Manuel Marquez. And that some people in boxing thought Marquez had won all three fights of their trilogy, but especially the third.

–Before the fight, Pacquiao spoke of rededicating his life, and about problems in his marriage, and those are the sorts of issues that put doubts in judges’ minds — and boxers’, too. Manny also has ongoing problems with cramps in his calves.

–Pacquiao in recent years is not the knockout puncher he once was, and his record shows it. That often happens to small men who rise through numerous weight divisions. The punch that knocked out guys at 130 pounds doesn’t do the same at 150 … and that leaves it in the hands of judges.

Maybe the judges got this one wrong. Scoring a fight is particularly subjective. Perhaps harder than scoring gymnastics or diving or skating — other sports where public outrage at scoring decisions is common.

Boxing is sometimes called the Sweet Science, but scoring a fight is an utterly inexact “science.”

The only sure way to know you have won a fight is to knock out the other guy. Manny Pacquiao has not been doing that regularly, and many believe he should have lost at least one recent decision before last night. Maybe he should have won a decision over Bradley, but a record of 54-4-2? Sounds about right.