Noel A. Muro

September 20, 2017

What a spectacle it was last Saturday night in Las Vegas. This great fight between Mexican Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and the undefeated Gennady “GGG” Golovkin exceeded expectations in some eyes and was truly a fight you didn’t want to miss.

Through all the positives this fight put out, a dark cloud cast a shadow on the T-Mobile Arena Saturday night, a shadow darkest over the judges.

In the eyes of many viewers the judging is what becomes the killjoy of a great fight, but we’ll get to that later.

For now let’s take a look at both performances from that glorious Saturday.

Gennady “GGG” Golovkin

The big bad wolf of the middleweight division was front and center on Saturday night in what was the biggest fight of his career against his most dangerous foe to this date.

At 35 years of age GGG had made it a mission, a goal earlier in his career to secure all the belts in the middleweight division and fight the best.

Inside the ring the Kazakh warrior changed relatively nothing in his game plan and executed as he usually does and went full steam ahead.

Controlling the jab is something that Gennady did and threw massive amounts of punches all while going forward, and in doing so, his face took legions of damage.
Many thought Gennady might have been exposed, or that maybe his age would take a toll on him, but he proved that night that he is among the best in the world and has not lost a step.

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez

Mexico’s new Golden Boy and quite possibly boxing’s biggest star proved he is not just hype and that he is among one of the best in the sport.

Saul Alvarez is a fighter that consistently keeps improving his craft with every visit to the ring. Starting a new journey in the middleweight division against best the weight class had to offer.

Canelo started the fight dictating the rounds but Golovkin’s constant pressure backed him up along with heavy punches. Canelo adjusted and started to box which is not something we see him do a lot of.

Canelo’s great ring IQ allowed him to adjust and even bait GGG to the ropes as he dodged many punches with excellent head and torso movement. It’s undeniable that Canelo may be one of the best in the business in the counter punching department.

The Mexican fighter in his new weight against a formidable opponent started to tire in the middle rounds and Golovkin surely took advantage with flurries of punishment.

The Dark Cloud

Now back to this cloudy business, the biggest upset of the night was judge Adelaide Byrd’s score card. The surprising score she had was 118-110 for Canelo and that was a very wide margin.

There was no way Canelo won 10-2, it was an insult to GGG, his team, the boxing community, and the fans. She does have a history of wild scores and some as Steve Kim has mentioned, in non Goldenboy promoted cards. Don Trella is another judge people are pointing fingers at as he scored the 7th round 10-9 for Alvarez.

The Nevada Athletic State Commission needs to clean this up or not involve its judges in the future, but there are many variables in this business that affect one another. If they receive enough emails, calls, and complaints maybe the public can enforce change, cough cough, hopefully.

Focus on The Positive

In the end this was a great fight that begs for a rematch! Win, lose or draw a rematch was inevitable. The fight was that close that a draw is something not to be fuming over. To be able to get these two champions to step in the ring and do it again, or even turn it into a trilogy would be amazing!

Magic Johnson’s tweet stood out the most once the dust settled.

Reports are that Golden Boy’s Eric Gomez and K2 Promotions Tom Loeffler are going to discuss the possibility of an immediate rematch this week if it hasn’t happened already.

Let’s hope that this happens before Cinco de Mayo weekend of 2018 because everyone would love to see how these men adjust to one another.