After Mayweather-Pacquiao underwhelmed with no knockdowns, and low punch output, all the media in boxing proclaimed, "Never again will we let promoters marinate a great matchup too long that it ruins the fight! Canelo-GGG will be the superfight to make up for that!"
Not only was "never again" forgotten, but they did it in boxing's VERY NEXT SUPERFIGHT.
Al Bernstein has said GGG is not the same guy he used to be.
Kelly Pavlik said even before Canelo-GGG that GGG looks old and arm weary, and is "pushing his punches" (which happens when you age).
Virgil Hunter and Victor Conte have both said similar things, but attributed it to training and recovering in high altitude, not age.
GGG has only 1 flash knockdown in his last three fights, after going 22 in a row with knockouts. He struggles to get off with his power punches now, which you see in aging fighters. He starts more slowly now to conserve energy, and still fades late, as we saw with both Jacobs and Canelo having late pushes in rounds 10, 11, and 12 of their fights with GGG despite the fact they were dead tired too. So how faded must GGG have been to lose rounds to dead tired fighters?
Two years ago this fight was looked at as two huge punchers and offensive dynamos colliding, one with a pressure style, one with a counter-punching style. Instead what we got was GGG being too tired, faded, and slow to consistently throw his power shots with conviction, and Canelo obviously was happy for it. One guy was tentative due to age, the other because of who he was fighting. The fight was "good," just like Maidana-Morales was good despite Morales being old, because certain styles will always produce entertaining fights, but was it great? Far from it.
So yes, Byrd's scorecard was bull****, but more important than scorecards is the fight itself. We waited years for this, and once again, it underwhelmed, and once again, it did so because of the same exact mistake by promoters. It's important to criticize bad judging, but don't forget to focus most of your criticism on the promoters. Just like May-Pac, we did not get the fight we were promised, and rematch or not, just like May-Pac, we never will, because GGG is only going to get older and keep declining.
Not only was "never again" forgotten, but they did it in boxing's VERY NEXT SUPERFIGHT.
Al Bernstein has said GGG is not the same guy he used to be.
Kelly Pavlik said even before Canelo-GGG that GGG looks old and arm weary, and is "pushing his punches" (which happens when you age).
Virgil Hunter and Victor Conte have both said similar things, but attributed it to training and recovering in high altitude, not age.
GGG has only 1 flash knockdown in his last three fights, after going 22 in a row with knockouts. He struggles to get off with his power punches now, which you see in aging fighters. He starts more slowly now to conserve energy, and still fades late, as we saw with both Jacobs and Canelo having late pushes in rounds 10, 11, and 12 of their fights with GGG despite the fact they were dead tired too. So how faded must GGG have been to lose rounds to dead tired fighters?
Two years ago this fight was looked at as two huge punchers and offensive dynamos colliding, one with a pressure style, one with a counter-punching style. Instead what we got was GGG being too tired, faded, and slow to consistently throw his power shots with conviction, and Canelo obviously was happy for it. One guy was tentative due to age, the other because of who he was fighting. The fight was "good," just like Maidana-Morales was good despite Morales being old, because certain styles will always produce entertaining fights, but was it great? Far from it.
So yes, Byrd's scorecard was bull****, but more important than scorecards is the fight itself. We waited years for this, and once again, it underwhelmed, and once again, it did so because of the same exact mistake by promoters. It's important to criticize bad judging, but don't forget to focus most of your criticism on the promoters. Just like May-Pac, we did not get the fight we were promised, and rematch or not, just like May-Pac, we never will, because GGG is only going to get older and keep declining.
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