The Boxing World Wants A Judge Punished For Inexplicably Ruling The Floyd Mayweather Fight A Draw
But one judge, C.J. Ross, ruled the fight a 114-114 draw, and now writers, promoters, ex-fighters, and fans are calling for her to be punished.
Mayweather called Ross' ruling a "joke" after his win.
ESPN's lead boxing analyst Teddy Atlas went on TV immediately after the fight and called Ross "criminal" and "corrupt."
The CEO of Golden Boy Richard Schaefer, who actually runs the company that promotes Canelo, told Yahoo, "The whole world was watching and obviously that scorecard was a disgrace. How that judge could be appointed after the decision of Bradley and Pacquiao is not a question I can answer. How can that happen? Is it going to happen again?"
Ross was involved in the Manny Pacquiao-Timothy Bradley scoring fiasco last year. She was one of the judges who scored the bout for Bradley, which many saw as a travesty.
Boxing News Online compiled the scorecards from 86 members of the boxing media. All 86 had Mayweather winning the fight, 21 said he won every single round, and only one media member had it closer than 117-111.
The reaction from boxing fans and ex-fighters across Twitter has been even more pointed.
In the face of the widespread calls for Ross to be reprimanded, Keith Kizer, the head of the Nevada State Athletic Commissioner defended her in an interview with USA Today, saying:
"Just because a judge's scorecard ends up even, doesn't mean the judge necessarily thought the fight as a whole was even. It could be that a judge has six rounds for each fighter, but the six rounds she gave fighter A, she gave them to him easily and the six rounds she gave fighter B, they were really close rounds. That's pretty much how it was last night."
Floyd ultimately still won the fight, and he was quick to deflect any questions about Ross in the post-match press conference. But his involuntary reaction when Ross's scorecard was read speaks volumes (via For The Win):
We don't know enough about boxing to say whether Ross should or shouldn't be banned for life.
But the fact is that she has been at the center of two high-profile controversies in the last 15 months, and she is quickly becoming a symbol for the senseless controversy and corruption that continues to undermine the sport.