By Keith Idec
Bob Arum has experienced plenty of dubious judging, both for and against his fighters, during a Hall-of-Fame career as a promoter that has spanned more than 50 years.
But even Arum was surprised that the Gennady Golovkin-Canelo Alvarez showdown resulted in a draw Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“Golovkin won the fight easy,” Arum said during a conference call Tuesday to promote his company’s ESPN card in Tucson, Arizona, on Friday night. “Easy! I had the fight 8-4. I didn’t think there should’ve been any controversy.”
Judge Adalaide Byrd strangely scored the 12-round middleweight title fight for Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs). Judges Dave Moretti (115-113 for Golovkin) and Don Trella (114-114) scored the competitive pay-per-view match much closer.
“And let me tell you,” Arum continued, “as bad as Adalaide Byrd judged that fight, what the hell was Trella watching in that seventh round, when Golovkin beat the hell out of Canelo and he gave the round to Canelo? What was that?”
Two of the fighters Arum’s Top Rank Inc. promotes, Mexicans Oscar Valdez and Gilberto Ramirez, disagreed with his take on Golovkin-Alvarez.
“I think Canelo actually did a pretty good job,” Valdez said. “A lot of people saw him lose, but my personal opinion, I thought he won the fight. I thought he went back, but a lot of those punches Golovkin was throwing, he wasn’t landing. I think Canelo hit [with] the stronger punches, and that’s really what I think.”
Valdez (22-0, 19 KOs) is set to defend his WBO featherweight title against the Philippines’ Genesis Servania (29-0, 12 KOs) in ESPN’s main event Friday night from the Tucson Convention Center. Ramirez (35-0, 24 KOs) will make a mandatory defense of his WBO super middleweight title against Philadelphia’s Jesse Hart (22-0, 18 KOs) in ESPN’s co-featured fight Friday night.
Ramirez thinks Trella’s score was the most accurate among the three judges’ submissions Saturday night.
“The draw was good because Canelo, he showed skills in the rounds,” Ramirez said. “And Golovkin, he pressured him all the time, came forward, and that was good. People were really surprised for Canelo because they were expecting Golovkin to destroy him. But the draw was good.”
2023-10-19 14:13:56
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