C.J. Ross Boxing Judge: Awful Decision Means Ross Should Be Banned

Saturday night's horrendous split-decision victory for Timothy Bradley over Manny Pacquiao has fans and experts of boxing clamoring for an explanation. The judges who made the ruling certainly have some explaining to do, as does the Nevada State Athletic Commission who assigned them to the fight.

One of those judges, C.J. Ross, will face a higher level of scrutiny because HBO's Harold Lederman questioned her credentials before the fight. After seeing Ross' scorecard, she should be banned from scoring a main even fight from now on.

Ross and Duane Ford gave the fight to Bradley 115-113 despite virtually every expert scoring the fight overwhelmingly for Pacquiao. ESPN's Dan Rafael and Lederman both scored the fight 119-109 for Pacquiao, while the Associated Press had it 117-111 for the Filipino southpaw. My card agreed with the AP, but I thought I was being generous by giving Bradley three rounds. 

Pacquiao completely outclassed Bradley all night. He landed 253 punches compared to 159 for Bradley, and that included an advantage of 190 to 109 in power punches. Pacquiao also landed more punches than Bradley in 10 of the fight's 12 rounds. 

Clearly Ford and Ross had no idea what they were doing while scoring the fight. The NSAC should act quickly to investigate all three judges, and if there is no conspiracy, then all three should be forced to explain their scoring of the fight. 

Ross was definitely not ready to be assigned to such a big fight, and she will now face the wrath of boxing fans. The NSAC should ban her from judging any main events in the foreseeable future. She has zero credibility among experts and fans of the sport now. 

Until someone steps forward and explains what happened Saturday night, there will be speculation about the integrity of the sport.