Gennady Golovkin – ‘This is terrible for boxing’

gennady golovkin

GOLDEN BOYโ€™S Eric Gomez โ€“ who represents Canelo Alvarez โ€“ asked the media to not to just focus solely on Adelaide Byrdโ€™s mind-boggling 118-110 scorecard in the Mexicanโ€™s favour, but few in the media could focus on anything else. The fight that led to the controversy was indeed a sumptuous one, but the greatest sporting events never leave such a nasty taste. And for Gennady Golovkin, it’s a taste that’s going to take some shifting.

When a decision like this occurs very often the reaction of the fighters is telling. While Canelo concluded the post-fight press conference somewhat triumphantly when he declared this was โ€œthe Canelo eraโ€, Gennady Golovkinโ€™s reaction was only of disappointment.

โ€œThis is terrible for the sport of boxing,โ€ said Golovkin. โ€œIf these judges can do this, itโ€™s terrible. I saw the total punches on the computer [punch stats], I saw the reaction to the decision, and everything is wrong.โ€

The WBC, WBA and IBF middleweight championโ€™s promoter Tom Loeffler added: โ€œIt takes everything away from the performances of the fighters in the ring.

โ€œI donโ€™t see how she [Byrd] could score 10 rounds to two the other way but heโ€™s still the champion. It could have been worse.โ€

And thatโ€™s the bright side in all of this. Not the glorious action or skill, but relief that Golovkin โ€“ for so long unable to secure a fight like this โ€“ did not lose his unbeaten record or titles as a consequence of incompetent officiating.

Golovkinโ€™s trainer, Abel Sanchez, admitted he was concerned about Byrd before the fight.

โ€œUnfortunately one of the judges turned up with a scorecard that was already written. I had some issues with her when we got the list of judges because of her erratic performances.

โ€œShe needs to go back to school and learn how to judge a fight. She canโ€™t be that blind, she canโ€™t be that bad.

“Something has to be done about the decisions, itโ€™s not fair on the fighters.”

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