In Bradley's Win Over Pacquiao: Nevada rules no crime

CEBU, Philippines - Nevada attorney general Catherine Cortez Mastro has ruled that there was no crime committed concerning Tim Bradley's controversial win over ring superstar Manny Pacquiao even though ring experts and millions of fans all over the world were in chorus in calling the decision a highway robbery.

Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports reported that Cortez Mastro wrote in a letter to Top Rank big boss Bob Arum that "there do not appear to be any facts or evidence to indicate that a criminal violation occurred."

Cortez Mastro said all the procedures were followed in choosing the officials and that the judges were experienced and highly qualified to officiate the match of such magnitude.

"Displeasure with the subjective decisions of sporting officials is not a sufficient basis for this office to initiate a criminal investigation," noted Cortez Mastro in the same internet report. "Unless evidence beyond mere displeasure if forthcoming, this matter will be considered closed. While there may be strong disagreement with the decision, the exercise of professional judgment by individuals officiating at a sporting event is not by itself a criminal violation."

Arum, however, wasn't completely happy with the ruling mainly because of the Nevada official's failure to interview the judges.

Two days after the highly questionable June 9 decision that sent shockwaves to fight fans on all corners of the globe, Arum sent a letter to Cortez Mastro requesting the result be investigated to clear his name.

Arum, however, felt the investigation conducted by Dale Liebherr, the attorney general's chief of investigations, wasn't thorough enough. For him, not interviewing judges Jerry Roth, C.J. Ross and Duane Ford was a mistake.

"I have no reaction to it," Arum said. "They spent a lot of time interviewing the referee [Robert Byrd] who had nothing to do with judging the fight, and I didn't see any interviews with the three judges who scored it? Wouldn't you do that if you were looking into it?"

"Anybody who reads that letter is going to say, 'Hey wait a second. The three people who, in effect, caused this, why weren't they interviewed?' Obviously, it would have been far more thorough had they interviewed the judges. They probably would have come to the same conclusion [that there was no evidence of a crime], but at least they would have talked to the people at the center of the issue," he added.

While Roth scored the bout 115-113 for Pacquiao, Ross and Ford both had it 115-113 for Bradley for the split verdict that spawned boxing's most controversial decision in recent memory.  - THE FREEMAN