'Fix' Controversy Surrounds GGG V Canelo After Fight Ends In Draw

It was billed as a potential fight of the decade, and Gennady Golovkin vs Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez certainly didn't disappoint last night. However, it wasn't without it's bit of controversy on the scorecards.

As GGG and Canelo took to the ring and delivered the hype we'd been promised, the fight ended in what some fans are calling a 'fix'.

Many had edged GGG marginally ahead, but as one scorecard revealed, Canelo earned himself a draw with a 118-110 points advantage.

The other two judges saw a 115-113 GGG win and a 114-114 draw.

It was Adalaide Byrd's scoring that caused so much controversy. Dave Moretti had the GGG two rounds up and Don Trella gave it as a draw, with the fight so close it was difficult to argue, but Byrd had Canelo eight rounds up only giving the Kazakh the fourth and seventh.

And no one was happy with the way that Byrd had scored it:

Even some boxing experts disagreed with her scoring.

Manny Pacquiao tweeted: "Did they bring these judges over from Australia?"

Conor McGregor added: "Boxing is a mad game."

Even on a great night for the sport somehow boxing manages to make controversy the top headline which is a huge shame.

Four years ago CJ Ross was struck off when she scored the Floyd Mayweather-Canelo fight a draw - Byrd now faces similar criticism.

Byrd was also requested not to score a fight in 2016. Carl Moretti of Top Rank VP of Boxing Operations revealed they'd asked to be removed from the Vasyl Lomachenko v Nicholas Walters bout.

Moretti said: "We respectfully requested that Adalaide Byrd not be assigned to this fight.

"From there it went on to a conversation [with NSAC executive director Bob Bennett] about how she is a good judge. Some judges can have good nights and can have bad nights. But when she has bad nights, she seems to be too far away from the score. Bob defended her left and right. He didn't wanna listen to our objection."

One plus side is that the result probably means the pair will fight again, the only problem for GGG is if the rematch is on Cinco de Mayo weekend then he'll have an even harder time of getting a result on the cards.

Michael Minay

Mike Minay is a trending journalist at LADbible. He’s co-ordinated interviews with some of the big names from the world of news and sport including ITV’s Robert Peston, Sky Sports’ Jeff Stelling and darts champion Michael van Gerwen. His reporting days began on University radio in Birmingham, before moving to BBC Sport Online – creating content for large events such as Wimbledon and the FA Cup final. Mike still commentates on Football League matches at the weekend. A Manchester LAD at heart.

@MikeMinay