According to reports out of Las Vegas, veteran judge C.J. Ross has taken a "self-imposed indefinite leave of absence" following her controversial scoring of last Saturday's clash between undefeated pound-for-pound king Floyd "Money" Mayweather and former jr. middleweight champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez. It was a dominant performance by Mayweather, and after 12 rounds of action, virtually everyone assumed he would be awarded a wide unanimous decision. That was until it was revealed that Judge Ross had somehow scored the bout even at 114-114.
Despite many describing her score as a "disgrace to boxing", Ross stood firm on her interpretation of the fight, explaining that from her view, it appeared as though Canelo was winning many of the exchanges. That claim, however, seemed laughable to most observers, as it was obvious that Mayweather was the one landing all of the clean shots and doubling Canelo's connect percentage. This was the second controversial score from Ross in the past 18 months, having awarded Timothy Bradley the nod over Manny Pacquiao back in June of 2012 with a score of 115-113 after a fight that many felt Pacquiao easily won.
Despite the fact that Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director Keith Kizer originally backed the scorecard of Ross, the embattled judge has decided to step away from the sport, at least for now. "To her credit, she does not want to take away from the story, being what a dominant performance by Floyd Mayweather. So, she has asked us if she can take some time off, we've agreed. It shows the type of person she is. Bill was very understanding and supportive. He agreed that that was a great avenue to take," Kizer explained to the Las Vegas Review Journal earlier today.
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