IS BOXING BARKING AT THE WRONG TREE?
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 17 Sep 2013
CJ Ross.
The sport that is called boxing has always been alleged to be less than honest. Others even call it outright corrupt and criminal.
Those allegations again surfaced over the weekend during the grand spectacular event held at the MGM Grand dubbed as the ?The One? ? Floyd Mayweather versus Saul ?Canelo? Alvarez.
Weeks ago, the names of the referee and the three judges assigned by the Nevada State Athletic Commission through its Executive Director, Keith Kizer, were announced.
People had no reservations about the referee, the charismatic Kenny Bayless. But, there were some rumbling about one of the judges, Cynthia J. Ross.
CJ Ross is well remembered by boxing fans from all over the world, Filipinos in particular, as the same person that scored the fight for Tim Bradley when he fought Manny Pacquiao at MGM.
Of course, replays showed that she scored the fight wrong, allowing Bradley to beat Pacquiao and grab his titles.
Fans and boxing experts alike yelled like hell in protest but Kizer stood pat on the decision rendering the fight as a victory for Bradley.
Fast forward.
Last Saturday when the great Mexican boxing hope Saul Canelo Alvarez fought Mayweather in the fight that is as grandiose as the Super Bowl or the Worlds Series
at the MGM, CJ Ross blew it again.
In spite of what everyone saw live or on PPV, Ross went against everyone?s opinion of the fight by scoring the fight as a draw giving each fighter 6 rounds each.
It?s either Ross was watching another fight or has lost her sense of fair judgment because the score she gave was so out of place.
Fans who were kind enough labeled her decision as ?weird?. Those who were not, simply labeled it as ?stupid? as or even worse than that.
Soon after Jimmy Lennon, Jr. announced that the fight was a ?majority decision?, a loud moan was heard from the crowd. Many knew right away or at least had a suspicion that CJ Ross has done it again.
Immediately after the fight, the media and the internet lit up with condemnation of CJ Ross. Some of the words used to describe her work are not even fit for this website.
Ted Atlas of ESPN even allegedly suggested that ?Ross was paid off by gamblers?. Mayweather was said to have uttered the F word when he heard that he won by a majority decision.
But, the deed is done and nothing can be done about it...
Fortunately, this time around it did not go against the true results of the fight -- a victory for Mayweather.
BoxingNewsOnline conducted a poll of some 86 members of the boxing media. Only one said the score was closer than 117-111.
Immediately after all the brouhaha came out, CJ Ross was quoted as saying that ?she stands by her scores.? She does not care what the critics say, insisting she called the fight correctly.
Many of the critics called her incompetent. Others called for her to be ousted from the sport.
But what was interesting was the way Keith Kizer reacted to the incident.
Kaiser said: ?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."
I personally think that all the anger and disgust directed at CJ Ross are misdirected.
Perhaps the boxing world is barking at the wrong tree.
It is not CJ Ross who is the problem, the NSAC is.
If an investigation is to be conducted, it must be focused on the NSAC and Kizer. They are the ones who picked CJ Ross for the job knowing that she had blown a job once before.
Why was she selected? Who wanted her in? Was someone influenced to pick her?
I have an opinion but I rather keep it to myself. I am sure many share the same opinion thus it need not be put out publicly.
I doubt however, the State of Nevada will do anything about the incident.
Boxing bring tons of money to the State and they are not about to change that no matter what all of us say.. And, we can complain until the black crows turn white.
CJ Ross and others we may perceive as like her are here to stay.
That?s boxing and that?s just the way it is .
Sad.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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