Boxing judge CJ Ross is responsible for two of the most embarrassing, unjustifiable boxing scores of our time.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. thoroughly dominated Canelo Alvarez on Saturday in Las Vegas and won by majority decision. Floyd won the fight easily, but didn’t receive a unanimous decision. Why? Because Ross scored it 114-114. Yes, Ross scored it 6 rounds to 6. A draw. She thought Mayweather and Alvarez had an even fight, even though Floyd landed about 115 more punches and was hardly touched.
Ross also scored the Timothy Bradley-Manny Pacquiao fight 115-113 (7 rounds to 5) in favor of Bradley to help him win a split decision last year.
[Related: Even Timothy Bradley wasn’t sure he won the fight]
Boxrec.com has a history of Ross’ controversial decisions. This is the sixth time since 2011 that she has scored a fight controversially, meaning she either scored it drastically differently from the other two judges, or gave more points to someone most felt did not deserve it.
Judge Dave Moretti scored the fight 116-112 for Mayweather Jr., while Craig Metcalfe had it 117-111.
Below is a look at all three judges’ scorecards for the Mayweather-Alvarez fight. Ross’ is on the right and blown up below:
Floyd looked invincible in the fight and I’m not sure what Moretti was watching, either. I had it as a shutout for Floyd. That was one of his best performances in years.
“I thought it was a joke,” Mayweather told ESPN when asked about Ross’ decision to score the fight a draw. “I was kind of shocked, but I’m not the judge. My job is to go out there and fight.”
Mayweather landed 93 of 175 power punches (53.1%) while Alvarez landed 73 of 232 (31.4%). Final punch stats also show Mayweather landed 232 of 505 (45.9%) compared to 117 of 526 (22.2%) for Canelo.
Scorecard via Luke Thomas
