By Steve Kim

A big bone of contention in last year's bout between IBO, WBA, WBC middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin and Mexican superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez - was the officiating.

The first bout, which took place in September 2017, ended in a controversial draw.

When they meet again the trio of Steve Weisfeld, Glenn Feldman and Dave Moretti will be ringside judging the fight and the third man in the ring will be Benji Esteves.

And Golovkin's trainer, Abel Sanchez, who raised objections about Tony Weeks being appointed as the referee for this contest, is satisfied with the officials who have been selected for the rematch, which takes place this Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

He stated to BoxingScene.com a couple of weeks ago that it wasn't so much about getting a referee or judges that he wanted but - "I just wanted neutral (people), I wanted guys that weren't influenced by the Nevada commission. I made a stink about it before the first fight about Adelaide Byrd, nobody listened."

Last year, Byrd turned in an incomprehensible scorecard of 118-110 for Alvarez, that was panned universally - even by the Mexican star's own promoter, Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions. The other judges saw it 115-113 for Golovkin and 114-114 to create the split draw.

"So now we have three very respected judges in the U.S., Steve Weisfeld is probably the dean of judges as far as impartiality and Benji Esteves being the referee, at least it's not a guy that's handled either one of the fighters in the past so he's going to be a guy that doesn't have an ax to grind or has an agenda in the fight," Sanchez said.

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.