Kizer Defends Ross over Mayweather/Alvarez Judging

By Clive Bernath: Keith Kizer, the head of the Nevada State Athletic Commission has defended female judge Cynthia ‘CJ’ Ross for scoring Saturday’s Floyd Mayweather Jr vs Saul Alvarez bout a draw when just about every person that witnessed the bout either LIVE or at home thought Mayweather had won handily.

Kizer, however, defended Ross’s 114-114 scorecard in an interview with USA Today Sports, saying: "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 fully appreciate that Mr Kizer has a duty to defend his staff, after all, he may well have had a hand in assigning her to officiate in one of the biggest fights in recent years. But his aforementioned quotes made no sense to me whatsoever. Mr Kizer is of course is entitled to his own opinion as are we all. My own opinion on the fight was that Floyd produced a masterful display of skills made up of speed, mobility, lateral movement, counter punching and accuracy. All of which resulted in a clear 118-110 verdict on my card. I had Alvarez winning the 2^nd and the 9^th rounds only. For me the fight was not even close and for the record the two other officials Craig Metcalf and Dvve Moretti had Floyd winning 117-111 and 116-111 respectively.

If my memory serve me correctly wasn’t judge Cynthia ‘CJ’ Ross also responsible for making Timothy Bradley a 115-113 points winner against Manny Pacquiao back in 2012 when, again, it was widely accepted that Pacquiao seemed a clear winner? In her defence judge Duane Ford also made Bradley a 115-113 winner on the night but again I had Pacquiao at least a three round winner. We must also bear in mind that three judges are assigned for a reason. One of those reasons is that as bizarre as it sounds spectators on opposite sides of the ring can and have, often scored the same fight very differently. I know this for a fact because I researched this a few years ago.

Anyway, that said, I still believe that Mr Kizer, if he has not done so already, should at least take another look at the Mayweather Jr/Alvarez fight before making a statement.

For what its worth I have to say that I was very impressed with Floyd’s new mature and professional public approach to the controversial scoring. Referring to Kizer’s decision to defend Ross, Mayweather told USA Today: "if they think she should be out there judging fights, then so be it."

September 16, 2013