The mega middleweight title fight between Gennady Golovkin and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez was built as the “Fight Of The Decade”, but while the bout itself was compellingly competitive, boxing was left bruised once again after the judges scorecards meant what was supposed to be a crowning night for the sport, instead ended in a controversy soaked draw.
This stalemate meant that Golovkin retained his WBA, WBC, and IBF titles, thus preserving his unbeaten record (37 wins and 1 draw), while a rematch is now inevitable - no doubt to the money-makers’ glee.
Golovkin went into the Las Vegas showpiece spectacle as the favourite for glory, and while he found himself under pressure at the start and end of the fight, GGG controlled the middle section and landed more punches, with most observers hailing the Kazakh as the deserved winner.
But, this is boxing we are talking about...
It was therefore perplexing that veteran judge Adalaide Byrd had Golovkin’s opponent, Alvarez, as a bafflingly clear 118-110 winner, compared to Dave Moretti who scored it 115-113 in favour of Golovkin, while the third judge, Don Trella, called it all-even at 114-114.
Twitter, as always, reacted to this news in style:
Manny Pacquiao, no stranger to controversial scorecards, has his say:
The controversial scorecards:
George Foreman wanted a KO!
Fight Nights had the same reaction as most:
Lennox Lewis was not impressed:
What's next then? This most likely...
It was fun (and on cable TV in Brazil so basically free), so why not? Bring it.
