One of the reasons boxing has struggled to gain new fans is due to horrendous scorecards by judges. Sadly, on Saturday night, a horrendous scorecard turned by Adalaide Byrd overshadowed a great middleweight championship fight between Canelo Alvarez (49-1, 2, 34 KOs) against Gennady Golovkin (37-0,1, 33 KOs) that ended in a draw.
The final outcome of a draw is not a terrible outcome considering how competitive the fight was. Most observers thought Golovkin won but knew that it was a close and entertaining fight.We here at Elite Sports NY scored the fight 115-113 for Golovkin.
Whether you were in attendance at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas or watching the fight on television, it was obvious to everyone except for Byrd that this was a very close fight. Even the other two judges turned in scorecards that no one could have a real issue with.
Judge Dave Moretti scored the fight 115-113 for Golovkin and judge Don Trella scored it 114-114. But somehow, Byrd came up with a scorecard of 118-110 for Canelo. The fight that she saw Golovkin only winning two rounds is mindboggling and she should be banned from judging another fight.
Punch stats show that Golovkin landed 218 out of 703 punches (31%), with Canelo landing 169 out of 505 punches (34%).
Byrd’s scorecard was just another long line of terrible scorecards that frustrates fighters and fans alike. Instead of talk about how good the fight was, Bryd’s scorecard has dominated the conversation about the fight.
Even the Nevada Athletic Commission’s executive director, Bob Bennett, expressed his disappointment with Byrd’s scorecard.
“In any business sometimes you have a bad day. She saw the fight differently (than the other judges). It happens,” Bennett said.
Many fans feel boxing is fixed, corrupt and that judges can be influenced to score a fight in favor of the bigger named fighter. Saturday night did nothing to discredit people from thinking like this.
The good news is that Canelo and Golovkin are both open to having a rematch, which will more than likely happen in the spring. It should be another great fight — a likely fight of the year candidate — and will surely not have Byrd as one of the judges.
When it’s at its best, boxing can be the most intriguing and entertaining sport. But it needs to start holding judges accountable when they turn in a poor scorecard like what happened on Saturday night, which ruined what should have been a terrific night for boxing.
