Ross Tossed (Okay, She Asked to Leave)

Veteran boxing judge C.J. Ross has been granted a leave of absence by the Nevada State Athletic Commission amid continued controversy surrounding her scoring of Floyd Mayweather’s recent defeat of Saul Alvarez.

Ross scored the Saturday night fight as a 114-114 draw, resulting in a majority-decision victory for the fighter known as ‘Money.’  The two other judges that scored the 12-round bout, which more resembled a technical demonstration by Mayweather, saw it as 117-111 and 116-112 for the winner.

Despite initially standing by her scorecard and telling TMZ, “I stand behind my decision,” Ross later asked to step down after 22 years of judging.  Keith Kizer, the executive director of the Athletic Commission, told KLAS-TV that Ross did, “.. not want to take away from the story.”

But to correct his statement, Ross became a sizable part of the story.

For full disclosure, I am not a boxing judge -- I'm a hack writer and PR guy.  However, by the words of boxing analysts and what I saw with my eyes, it could be argued Alvarez won one, maybe two rounds at most.  But what didn’t occur was a draw.  Mayweather clearly won the contest, and most fans or pundits wouldn’t have argued if the judges scored every round for Mayweather.

Floyd, what did you think of Ross' scoring?  Bieber is still dazed.

Mayweather, regarded as the pound-for-pound best in boxing, peppered Alvarez with the jab at will and deftly dodged most every punch from ‘Canelo.’  The volume of precise, speed punches from ‘Money,’ who arguably remains the fastest man in boxing at the age of 36, won the fight -- except on the scorecard of Ross.

Unfortunately, this is the second scoring controversy in as many years for questionable official.

In 2012, Ross judged the oft disputed Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley fight.  While Pacquiao landed considerable more punches, appeared to control most rounds and even hurt Bradley at times, Ross and fellow judge Duane Ford scored the fight 115-113 for Bradley.  Only Jerry Roth gave the fight to ‘Pacman’ (115-113).

In both cases, Ross scored in favor of the underdog when the majority of the boxing world watched the favorite dominate.  At least with the Bradley fight, another judge was on her side.  However, a post-fight review by the World Boxing Organization saw five independent judges all score the fight for 'Pacman.'

The scorecards from the Mayweather vs. Alvarez fight.

Ross’ decisions only feed into preexisting stereotypes about boxing and beg sports fans to ask questions about the integrity of the sport.  (And while Ross had nothing to do with this, Mayweather’s dominance also begs questions about matchmaking and hype in boxing for casual observers.)

Leading up the fight, the odds on a prop bet for a draw went from 30-1 to 8-1, suggesting a large amount of money being bet on said draw.  Coincidentally, Ross scored the fight a draw.

I don’t think Ross was paid off for her ruling as Teddy Atlas suggested on ESPN.  But it also provides great circumstantial evidence for conspiracy theorists.  I also don’t know enough boxing history to know if Ross is the Angel Hernandez of boxing judges, but it sure seems like it.

By stepping down it appears Ross is admitting something improper happened on Saturday night, which seems to be the right thing to do.   And at least in this fight the winning fighter actually won.

(And despite all my desire to watch a Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight, I think I managed to write that without bias.)

By the way, what did you think of Ross' scoring, Floyd:

Images courtesy ESPN.com, For The Win and USA Today.

The Greatest (Comic) of All Time

The fine folks over at Deadspin’s The Stacks recently put together a post on a pop culture time capsule, a 1978 DC comic featuring Superman and Muhammad Ali.

The famed comic, entitled Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, was a 72-age oversize edition that was also reissued in 2010 in a hardcover form.  Part of a collectors’ series issues by DC, the comic included a wrap-around cover featuring the likenesses of many stars of the day -- and despite being a literary piece, it still strikes me as odd that Kurt Vonnegut was included, but he was a big deal.

Interestingly, at the time of its delayed release in 1978, Ali had lost the world heavyweight boxing title to Leon Spinks.

In addition to providing the backstory behind the famed comic images from its pages, The Stacks’ post also includes two embedded YouTube links -- a clip from the original production of the comic (below) and a recent interview with DC Comics artist Neal Adams.

Here is a link to a Wikipedia entry specifically about the 1978 comic and follow this link to check out the Deadspin post.

Image courtesy DeadSpin.