By Keith Idec
LAS VEGAS – Adalaide Byrd’s scorecard bothered even the mild-mannered middleweight champion who rarely says anything negative.
An agitated Gennady Golovkin said in the aftermath of his draw with Canelo Alvarez that Byrd scoring their highly competitive fight 118-110 for Alvarez is “terrible” for this perpetually sullied sport. Kazakhstan’s Golovkin believes he won nine of the 12 rounds Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena, though none of the three judges saw it that way.
“This is terrible for sport, for boxing,” Golovkin said during the post-fight press conference. “I’m a champion. This is biggest fight for boxing. If these judges [score] like today, this is terrible.”
Byrd has drawn widespread scorn for scoring 10 of the 12 rounds for Mexico’s Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs). Judge Dave Moretti gave Golovkin a 115-113 victory, but judge Don Trella scored their HBO Pay-Per-View main event even (114-114).
“You know, I’m a fighter,” said Golovkin, who hopes Alvarez will give him a rematch in May. “I’m a boxer. If second fight’s the same, for me, it’s not my problem, you know? I come to box. I come to ring. This is not my job. My job is only in the ring.”
Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) retained his IBF, IBO, WBA and WBC titles, but Alvarez still owns The Ring magazine and lineal middleweight titles because he hasn’t been beaten since winning those championships from Miguel Cotto in November 2015. Tom Loeffler, the managing director for K2 Promotions, can’t believe Golovkin doesn’t own all of those titles today.
“You can make an argument there were a few close rounds,” Loeffler said. “But I really couldn’t make any argument [for] 118-110. Like I said, from my understanding, HBO, on their scores, had it pretty wide for Triple-G. That’s how I scored it. We give Canelo credit for, you know, his performance in the ring. But I think Gennady pressed the action on a continual basis and I thought it was pretty clear for him. But like I said, the main thing is he kept his titles. What else can you say?”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
