It’s typical.
Boxing gets the chance to legitimise itself with a genuine meeting of the two best in the world and distance itself from accusations of corruption.
Then Gennady Golovkin vs. Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez receives some of the most deplorable scoring ever seen at a judge’s table.
Those who rarely watch fights were shocked to their very core to hear that judge Adalaide Byrd had awarded Alvarez, who looked second best for large portions at the T-Mobile Arena, a 118-110 victory but seasoned boxing viewers knew to expect nothing less.
— JOE (@JOE_co_uk) September 17, 2017
Whether there was something shady going on or whether the bizarre scorecard was down to genuine incompetence remains to be seen but it’s a story that’s all too familiar.
Home advantage and the crowd favourite should never matter, nor should the result be affected by the promoter or commission in question, but it so often happens.
Golovkin can rightly feel robbed and one fighter who sympathises with the undefeated Kazakh fighter is Manny Pacquiao, who still feels aggrieved about his unanimous decision defeat to the unheralded Jeff Horn in July.
Several eyebrows were raised when former schoolteacher Horn, in his native Australia, snatched Pacquiao’s WBO welterweight title away from the Filipino legend despite being outlanded almost twofold over twelve rounds.
It was a controversial decision but significantly less egregious than the split draw on Saturday night.
And Pacquiao took to Twitter in the wake of GGG vs. Canelo to deliver his hilarious take on the result.
https://twitter.com/mannypacquiao/status/909267298778701824
