Three questionable scorecards handed Canelo a draw at the T-Mobile Arena as the boxing world was once again the subject of strong corruption claims.
Judge Adalaide Byrd has been ridiculed since handing in what is one of the worst official cards in Las Vegas history as Canelo somehow dodged a second career loss against the tough Kazakh.
Byrd scored the breathtaking encounter 118-110 to Alvarez despite the Mexican seemingly being out-fought and out-worked for the majority of the bout.
Fans around the world gasped as the scores were read out, which robbed Golovkin of what should have been a career-defining victory in Las Vegas.
Even the 115-113 handed in by Dave Moretti, and in favour of Golovkin could have been slightly questioned, whilst Don Trella seemingly got away with giving Canelo an undeserved draw.
Some of the rounds were closer than others, around five at a really, really, really tough push, two of which (the second and sixth) WBN carded for Canelo. The Mexican had claims to the third session, the eleventh and the final one, but overall was largely out-punched and worn down by Golovkin, whose career has been held back by the incompetance of Byrd and Trella.
Looking at the punch stats – which cannot be ignored in any fight, and there’s no way Canelo can win the ninth (13 punches to GGG’s 23) having been out-landed by Golovkin by almost double. Most of GGG’s blows landed were power punches into the bargain. How on earth anyone could see that round to Canelo is beyond me, and to their credit, both Moretti and Trella got that simple decision correct.
All three scored the second to Canelo, like WBN, whist two (Moretti and Trella again) handed the sixth to Golovkin, meaning WBN’s card could conceivably read 119-109 at the final bell (something Byrd could have done for Canelo had she followed Trella in carding the seventh for the two-weight title holder).
Golovkin 100% won the fourth (even Byrd got that correct), fifth and ninth, coupled with the fact he out-landed Canelo for ten of the twelve rounds. Power punches landed show Canelo had his best accuracy in the elventh, but even then, he was once again on the wrong end of the most blows.
Scoring is subjective and rightly so, but at some point in time the amount of punches landed coupled with pressure from a fighter has to be the way forward.
Guile, defense, counter-punching and movement can only get you so far, and plenty of fights would suffer if this was the true blueprint to winning contests.
Canelo largely ran for the final six rounds as Golovkin piled on the pressure, which is why there’s such an uproar from a boxing community who are fed up of seeing fighter’s who deserve victories suffer travesties and blatant injustice.
I, for one, can’t see that changing anytime soon.
Phil Jay is Editor of World Boxing News. Follow on Twitter @PhilDJay
