Judge’s decision spoiled perfect night of boxing
LAS VEGAS — Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez had delivered as promised Saturday night. They had fought 12 hard rounds, delivering the kind of back-and-forth warfare that had the sellout crowd of 22,358 at T-Mobile Arena standing on its feet.
It wasn’t Hagler-Hearns, but it was competitive championship boxing, the final bell sounding as the boxers stood toe-to-toe adding the final bruises of battle. It was thrilling and satisfying. Then Adalaide Byrd ruined it.
The unified middleweight championship was competitive enough that few would have complained if either fighter had won a close decision. The ultimate verdict of a draw doesn’t turn the stomach. But Byrd’s scorecard that saw Alvarez winning 118-110 left a lingering stench.
The fight was good enough, close enough to cause the kind of postfight debate the sport has lacked in recent years. The strategy, the ebbs and flows in the bout, and the ultimate decision could have been a source of water-cooler discussions and fuel demand for a rematch.
Instead, Byrd’s scorecard that showed Golovkin winning just the fourth and seventh rounds has overshadowed the excellence of the bout. The veteran judge of 115 title fights might be the only one on the planet that saw the bout as that one-sided, creating another judging controversy the sport didn’t need.”
“This is terrible for the sport of boxing,” said Golovkin, who retained his WBC, WBA, IBF and IBO titles with the draw. “I’m a champion and this is the biggest fight for boxing. This is terrible. Unbelievable.”
Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez wasn’t happy either.
“Something has to be done when decisions are made like that,” he said. “It’s just not fair to the fighters.”
The ultimate verdict of a draw isn’t an issue. There are those who felt Golovkin won the fight because he kept a relentless pace, was the aggressor throughout the middle rounds and forced the fight enough on the ropes to win the bout.
“We did what we wanted,” Sanchez said. “I said the first three or four rounds would be difficult for both guys and we would win the later rounds and that’s what I thought we did.”
There are those who think Alvarez could have won the first two rounds when he stayed in the center of the ring, won another round in the middle and the final three as he did on all three scorecards to at least earn the draw. The Post scored the bout 114-114.
“I won the fight,” Alvarez said adding, “That was the plan to use the ring, fight in the center and use the ropes and we did exactly that.”
A rematch will be demanded. Don’t look for Byrd to be one of the judges again. Bob Bennett, the executive director of the Nevada Athletic Commission, said he will meet with Byrd, a judge for nearly 30 years, to discuss her scorecard.
“I think she’s an outstanding judge,” said Bennett, who appoints the judges and referees for each fight. “In any business sometimes you have a bad day. She saw the fight differently. It happens.”
Sanchez said he was concerned about Byrd’s appointment going into the fight though it was agreed to by the Golovkin camp.
“I had some issues with her when they gave us the list of judges,” Sanchez said. “I said that she was so up and down with fights. She had one good one and then she had three or four bad ones. I think she needs to go back to school and learn how to judge a fight.”
Louie Burke, the long-time trainer for former junior middleweight champ Austin Trout put it this way.
“The commissions make fighters jump through hoops to make weight, to get their medicals, to make sure their child support is up to date, yet when it comes to getting officials there are no strict stands. Sometimes people have a bias and being corrupt doesn’t mean you have to take money. They know in order to keep judging they’re supposed to score a certain way, and to me that’s corrupt.”
Alvarez (49-1-2) and Golovkin (37-0-1) both said they’re open to a rematch after a brief rest.
“He’s not the monster that everyone was talking about,” Alvarez said adding, “Right now I’m going to take some time off and then we’ll sit down with our team and decide what’s next.”