Canelo-Khan Officials Set Down For May 7th Showdown

By Jake Donovan

Veteran official Kenny Bayless has been named as the referee for the May 7 middleweight championship between defending champ Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and welterweight contender Amir Khan. The scheduled 12-round bout – which will be contested at Alvarez’ preferred maximum catchweight of 155-pounds – headlines an HBO Pay-Per-View event live at the brand new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The three ringside judges for the bout will be Adalaide Byrd, Glenn Trowbridge and Glenn Feldman. Of the four major officials, only Feldman (Connectictut) is not based out of Nevada.

Bayless will earn $4,150 for his role as third man, while the three judges will earn $2,950 each, regardless of whether the contest goes the distance and, thus, to the scorecards.

All four officials - as well as their assigned pay rates - were unanimously approved by the five-chair Nevada State Athletic Commission panel during its monthly agenda hearing held Tuesday at state headquarters in Las Vegas.

Alvarez (46-1-1, 32KOs) makes the first defense of the World middleweight championship he claimed in a 12-round unanimous decision over Miguel Cotto last November. None of the four officials chosen for the May 7 assignment were at ringside for Alvarez-Cotto.

In fact, Bayless has only been involved in one previous fight for each for Alvarez and Khan. The soon-to-be 66-year old referee served as third man for the lone loss of Alvarez’ career, when he fell short to Floyd Mayweather in their Sept. ’13 super welterweight clash (at a Mayweather-demanded catchweight of 152-pounds) which at the time established industry financial records for the largest live gate and highest-grossing Pay-Per-View event.

Bayless’ performance – which was generally viewed as serviceable and non-intrusive – was overshadowed by the disgraceful scorecard turned in by C.J. Ross, who somehow saw the action 114-114 in a bout most had Mayweather winning no fewer than 10 rounds.

Ross has since resigned from her post as an official.

Trowbridge has the most combined experience in officiating bouts involving either boxer. The Nevada judge had the closest score among the three judges present for Khan’s narrow unanimous decision win over Marcos Maidana in their Dec. ’10 thriller, scoring the bout 113-112 in favor of Khan. His card was one round closer than that of Ross and Jerry Roth, both of whom had Khan winning by matching scores of 114-111.

Of the three Alvarez bouts for which Trowbridge has served as a judge, only one has gone the distance. That came in May ’12, when Alvarez scored a wide decision win over former three-division champ Shane Mosley. Trowbridge turned in a scorecard of 119-109, in line with the general consensus as well as that of judge Jesse Reyes. The third judge – Ross – had the bout one round closer at 118-108.

Judges Byrd and Feldman will officiate an Alvarez bout for the first time in their respective careers. 

Byrd was ringside for Khan’s 12-round win over Luis Collazo, scoring the May ’14 welterweight clash 119-104 in favor of the Brit. She was also among the three-judge panel for Khan’s July ’12 knockout loss to Danny Garcia, having the bout even at 28-28 at the time of the stoppage, a score in line with public perception.

Feldman scored just one previous bout involving Khan, seeing the former super lightweight titlist as a 119-109 winner over former two-division champ Devon Alexander in their Dec. ’14 clash. The bout was a unique situation where it was competitive within each round, yet one where the wide scores were in fact reflective of the contest as a whole.

The assigned officials’ general infrequency with either boxer is an interesting scenario.

Alvarez – currently the most popular active boxer from Mexico – appears in Las Vegas for the eighth time in his career, including his fifth fight within his past six starts.

Khan (31-3, 19KOs) – a former super lightweight titlist who hails from England but trains out of Virgil Hunter’s facility in Northern California – makes his sixth appearance in the boxing capital of the world, and third within his past four fights.  He enters the fight on the heels of a five-fight win streak, but also fights above welterweight for the first time in his career.

Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox