When the dust had settled after Sunday’s fight of the year contender in Sin City, Gennady Golovkin was confident that his perfect record would remain intact, and so were most of the 22,358 fans who filled the T-Mobile Arena.
His trainer, Abel Sanchez, hoisted the baby-faced assassin in the air after the final bell as he raised his hand in victory. His elation would be short-lived, though.
Veteran ring announcer Michael Buffer delivered the crushing news moments later, declaring the bout a split draw. Judge Dave Moretti scored the bout 115-113 Golovkin, Adalaide Byrd handed in a ballot for Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez with a score of 118-110, and Don Trella had it a 114-114 draw. My personal scorecard mirrored Moretti’s 115-113 for ‘Triple G’.
The joy in the arena evaporated, quickly turning to anger after the decision was read. Even the pro-Canelo crowd, many of whom came dressed head-to-toe in red, white, and green and wearing sombreros, booed the Mexican star’s victory.
In the end, the fight for middleweight supremacy displayed everything I love and hate about boxing and wrapped it up in a neat little bow.
It was a dramatic, action-packed soap opera with fists which was spoiled by a controversial decision that has again sparked the debate over the sport and corruption.
“Follow the money,” Hall of Fame trainer and commentator Teddy Atlas said on ESPN following the fight. “Boxing doesn’t honour the things it should honour. It honours money, control, power. And there’s only certain power brokers in boxing, certain promoters, and they have the power.
“They have control who the judges are going to be, who the judges aren’t going to be, who they’re going to vote for. Las Vegas, where the money is going to come back there for the rematch.”
Atlas went on a similar rant in July after Aussie school teacher turned pro face-puncher Jeff Horn scored a questionable win over Manny Pacquiao, and chances are he will be screaming about bogus judges again before long.
The truth is, Atlas, a boxing lifer who has been a trainer in the sport since he began as an assistant to Cus D’Amato while grooming teenage prodigy Mike Tyson in the early 80s, has a right to be infuriated.
Byrd, the judge who inexplicably scored ten of 12 rounds for Canelo, had an awful night. And this isn’t even her first scoring controversy that involves Alvarez. Byrd was the lone judge to have Canelo ahead on the cards before he knocked Amir Khan out last year – an opinion shared by almost nobody in the boxing community.
Byrd has been stinking up the place from her judge’s seat for over a decade now, turning in more bad cards than good ones between her boxing and mixed martial arts assignments in Vegas.
(Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
UFC fans will recall the 2010 bout between Leonard Garcia and Nam Phan that was named ‘Robbery of The Year’. Byrd was one of the judges who awarded the fight to Garcia, even though most agreed Phan won every single round.
The Nevada-based official has developed such a poor reputation that Top Rank made a formal request to remove her from the judging pool for the Vasyl Lomachnko-Nick Walters bout last November.
“We respectfully requested that Adalaide Byrd not be assigned to this fight,” Top Rank VP of Boxing Operations, Carl Moretti, told BoxingScene.
“From there it went on to a conversation (with NSAC executive director Bob Bennett) about how she is a good judge. Some judges can have good nights and can have bad nights. But when she has bad nights, she seems to be too far away from the score. Bob defended her left and right. He didn’t wanna listen to our objection.”
Bennett was singing a different tune after yesterday’s stinker, unable or unwilling to defend Byrd’s atrocious scorecard.
“Unfortunately, she didn’t do well,” Bennett told the press. “There’s not one person sitting in this audience, whatever their position is, who hasn’t had a bad night at their job. She was off her mark tonight.”
That’s an understatement. Plain and simply, after handing in that incredibly lopsided ballot, Byrd is either inept or something far worse.
Take your pick.
memanning
Guest
I do not agree.
BigJ
Roar Guru
Nah just GGG beating the crap out of Pacquiao
couldabeenacontender
Guest
Reviewed this fight more closely to rescore it. Thought Canelo won the first 6 rounds, and the last, to give him 115-113. GGG looked very sluggish and missed wildly at times, thought he was getting a boxing lesson until Canelo started to tire.The compubox stuff seems like nonsense, GGG threw a lot of punches but struggled to land them cleanly (or at all) for the first half of the fight. Where was this great ko power? Canelo outnumbered him in clean punches overall IMO and there was no body punching to speak of from GGG. Not sure how you could only give GGG 2 rounds though lol. The later middle rounds were GGG's quite convincingly. The draw wasn't unrealistic, so in the end it one lopsided score doesn't matter that much.
Mike Julz
Guest
Yea probably. I want it to happen because it would be slugfest punch up.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Either way, when a score isn't given until the end, reviewing it and correcting clear errors should be able to be done. Unlike other sports where the incorrect call can have other ramifications through the course of the game, if you just let two guys box for 15 rounds and then give scores at the end, then those could easily be reviewed and if shown to be clearly wrong could be adjusted. And if that changes who won the fight so be it. Alternately you could go totally the other way and have the scores updated live on a scoreboard. Pretty sure that's how it's done in amateur boxing like at the Olympics (the scoring is completely different, not necessarily saying they should adopt that scoring, just that you could get a live scoreboard). That way, if a fighter believes they are on top, but the scoreboard shows they aren't, they know they need to do something different to get on top. And you eliminate the situation where a boxer feels they dominated the whole thing only to get to the end and find the scores going against them.
Sideline Commentator
Roar Guru
Triple G would be a fair bit too big for Pacman.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
There is, of course, no guarantee that as money rises more and more in the UFC that there won't be similar corruption there.
Farqueue
Guest
I seriously can't see how anyone could say canelo won that fight. It was so obviously a GGG victory. 9-3... I could even go 8-4...I honestly can't give him 5 rounds. Cash cow wins again.
Mike Julz
Guest
She should be banned from ever judging a championship match again. If she wanted Canelo to win that bad, at least dont make it so obvious. It would've been alright if she gave Canelo 7 rounds to 5. A draw seems right, even tho GGG DID MORE to win, 8 rounds to 4. But the fight itself was great. Worth the build up and expectations. Was going for Triple G for a late round knock out. But Canelo was that good at evading punches and counter punching. A rematch should definitely be on the cards. The other fight I wanna see tho is Triple G vs Pacman. A real slugfest Mexican style fight.
BigJ
Roar Guru
Why boxing continues to discredit itself is beyond the joke. if the judge that scored 118-110 score 115-113 to Canelo as they should of it would of been no worries, but who knows, its just a money game boxing and has been for over a century.
Justin Faux
Expert
Unfortunately I think you've come to the ggg party too late. He has looked slower over his past two fights. It's a shame that he was ducked by big name opponents during his prime.
Justin Faux
Expert
100% agree that it's a shame we are talking about judges right now. That fight was outstanding, I wish that was what we all wanted to talk about.
Justin Faux
Expert
In Nevada, NSAC director Bob Bennett asks judges to explain their scores in behind closed doors meetings. As for your idea to video review and re-score bouts, the problem is judging is still subjective. You and I could watch the same round and pick different winners, even with the benefit of video replay or fight stats.
Justin Faux
Expert
The only judge that needs to be investigated is Adalaide Byrd for giving GGG only two frames. I disagree with the draw card, but it's not outrageous.
Justin Faux
Expert
I don't think a 114-114 draw or even 115-113 Canelo are bad scores. Byrd's 118-110 was the stinker.
The Grafter
Guest
In the US they have realized all the UFC on standard Fox has put a dent in the casual 20-30s white male audience. Top Rank are now showing a lot of fights in conjunction with ESPN (Pac/Horn the first of note) whilst PBC started last year. I agree, the PPV money only goes so far and eventually people will become disillusioned.
Justin Faux
Expert
I agree that Canelo is better at a lighter weight but a part of the reason for his deteriorating pace was Golovkin's pressure. He just never let's up.
Gags
Guest
First time I've watched GGG and I was disappointed. He looked past it, not fast enough to regularly hit the target and not strong enough to do damage when he did. Sure he was the agressor but that was about it. Alvarez didn't put enough combinations together and looked out of puff halfway through. Maybe I'm being harsh but I didnt watch a classic yesterday.
The Grafter
Guest
Don wrote the book on draws I think Drew (I cant forget Fenech/Nelson 1).
The Grafter
Guest
You make some valid points Chris. Unfortunately its been going on since the bare knuckle days. These days its more about the judging rather than the fighter taking a dive although theres been a couple of fights in Australia over the past few years Ive been suspicious about It was the Mafia in the US that helped 'introduce' no draws in MLB pre ww2 so an outcome could be bet on (NRL take note). Money in sport is an unfortunate necessity, but usually will put a stain on that particular sport at some stage.