How to Ruin One of The Biggest Fights of The Year
Millions of jaws dropped as the eyes of spectators all over the world were glued to the screen. One of the biggest fights in boxing had come to a close. The two fighters Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez eagerly awaited as the ring announcer began to read off the scorecards. The two fighters went through a 12-round blood and guts war with each other that ultimately was too close to call. According to James Brady’s article, Controversial GGG-Canelo decision leaves judge sidelined, some bettors with refunds, during the fight, Dave Moretti, Don Trella, and Adalaide Byrd were the three judges scoring the contest. Dave Moretti scored the contest at 115–113 for Golovkin, Don Trella scored it a 114–114 draw, and Adalaide Byrd scored it as a lopsided 118–110 for Canelo. Controversy erupted throughout the boxing community with voices complaining that the score cards were rigged. Most of the attention was toward the judge Adalaide Byrd’s terrible judging with the scorecard of 118–110. Viewers and critics called the ruling of her score card absurd. Even the promoter of the fight, Oscar Dela Hoya a well-known retired professional boxer, was confused about Byrd’s scorecard. (Brady p.1–4) This ruling was just one of many scorecards that were appalling throughout Adelaide’s career. Adalaide Byrd shouldn’t have judged the major Golovkin vs Canelo fight due to the fact she gave a terrible score and has never had a good history in judging boxing fights.
Adalaide Byrd’s past scoring on fights has been quite abnormal. According to Chris Chaves article, Boxing Judge Adalaide Byrd Has A History of Unpredictable Results, “Byrd has a history among those in the boxing circles. She scored Canelo Alvarez’s one-sided victory over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. with a 120–108 card. In Alvarez’s sixth round knockout of Amir Khan, she had scored it 48–47 in favor of Khan before he went down.” (Chavez p.3). Adding to Chris Chavez argument, I would like to point out the extremities of her judging. I agree with this the most due to the fact that clearly the evidence shows how lopsided her scorecards are. A 120–108 lead for the guy that was being dominated most of a fight, appalling, right? It’s one thing for a bias crowd with limited knowledge of boxing to critique a major judge as Adalaide. Yet even she has had push backs from higher names in the sport of boxing. Adding to this, Chris Chaves wrote, “In November, Top Rank vice president of Boxing Operations Carl Moretti told BoxingScene.com that the promoters asked the Nevada Athletic Commission that she not serve as one of the judges for the Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Nicholas Walters fight but they did not get their wish granted.” (Chavez p.4) This just tells you in and everything of itself. When a top rank Vice President of Boxing Operations goes out of his way and tells a judge that you shouldn’t judge a fight, you know something is wrong here.
A terrible scorecard takes away the spotlight from the fight itself. In Danny Segura’s article, Mario Lopez bashes judge Adalaide Byrd’s ‘criminal’ scoring of Canelo-GGG: ‘She should’ve been arrested’, he inserted a quote from Mario Lopez’s take on the fight. “You should never know a judge’s name, and whenever the judge is starting to get more (publicity) and it’s overshadowing a really good fight between two of the best boxers in the world, that’s just such a stain on the evening,” Lopez explained.” (Segura p.7). I totally agree with this point. When you remember a terrible scorecard more than the fight itself, it ruins the fight for everyone. Mario Lopez acknowledged that the fight was great, but Byrd’s score card was almost criminal like. The fight should be solely focused on the results not Byrd’s terrible decision. Hands down, mostly everyone who watched the fight knows the blockbuster fight gave the fans what they were looking for. It’s the problem that a terrible scorecard was the talked about the most after the fight.
Others view Adalaide Byrd’s scorecard as a premise to corruption of boxing. In MMA Fighting Newswire’s article, Outraged Teddy Atlas blames boxing ‘corruption’ for Canelo vs. GGG draw, they stated, “Atlas went on to decry Byrd as well as the Nevada Athletic Commission and the sport of boxing itself, growing increasingly outraged before erupting in a memorable on-air rant that can be watched here. “There’s money to be made in the casino business, but there is an oversight board to make sure there is no corruption. There’s no oversight board in boxing,” an enraged Atlas shouted.” (Newswire p. 5–6). This Teddy Atlas quote overlooks what I consider an important view point about all three scorecards, and I disagree with his view. Teddy believes that Adalaide Byrd, NAC, and all the sport of boxing is “corrupt”. Yet he does not include the two other judges who judged the fight correctly with two very close scores. Critics who believe boxing is corrupt, of course, may want to question whether the other two judges are corrupt. So, if they’re saying all of boxing is corrupt, are you doubting the judging abilities of two decent judges? In the eyes of many, the close scorecards of 115–114 for Golovkin and the 114–114 draw were accurate calls. Dave Moretti and Don Trella don’t have a unique history’s of deplorable judging. It’s the fact she has no part in judging the fight with a terrible act for judging.
So, is this fight an example of “corruption” in boxing? In the article, Adalaide Byrd: Blatantly Corrupt Or Wholly Incompetent?, by Andrew Lawrence, he wrote, “Judging of her caliber has put a major black eye on the sport of boxing as a whole, and continue to give credence to the idea that boxing is a corrupt sport.” (Lawrence p.3). He also went on to say, “Why do controversial scorecards and suspect judging plague Oscar de la Hoya and his Golden Boy promotion like this? Of course, Oscar was quick to defend Byrd and her scorecard after the fight. I’m sure it helps that the score guarantees his fighter another shot at what’s currently the biggest payday in boxing.” (Lawrence p.4) Some readers may challenge my view and say boxing is corrupt with Adalaide Byrd as it’s center piece. Yet, is the sport of boxing savage enough to cheat their fighters. If a fight was being corrupt, you would believe the fighters would be somewhat content with the ruling. But, no. In Wil Esco’s article, Canelo-GGG: Gennady Golovkin’s Post-Fight Press Conference, he uses quotes from Gennady Golovkin after the fight which were eye opining. Gennady went on to say, “I saw computer, you know, all total punches. I saw reaction, people reaction. And for this judges, it’s terrible. For me it’s terrible, you know, just — this is not great, this is very bad for sport.” In this quote you can definitely see Gennady confused in the judge’s ability, merely Adalaide Byrd.
Adalaide Byrd’s subpar analysis leads me to believe that she shouldn’t have judged such a major fight. Some views may think that boxing is corrupt. People may say that she’s a professional and that you have bad nights. Well I get it, no one is perfect. But if you have a history for messing up scorecards in multiple fights constantly, get called out by the Vice President of Boxing Operations and Executive Director of NASC, and have more people talk about your scorecard rather than the mega fight itself how are you being corrupt. At the end of the day, her subpar judging ruined what seemed to be a step in the right direction for boxing. But with her terrible judging, boxing took a black eye and a step backwards.
