One stirring line spoken about the middleweight boxing supremacy war in Las Vegas on Saturday said both warriors didn’t deserve to lose.
To majority of aficionados though, that may be less than accurate.
Gennady Golovkin won it tight and strong to remain the king of middleweights.
Canelo Alvarez, who claims this now is The Era of Canelo, wasted no time to dispute GGG.
The Mexican redhead claimed he won “easily 7 or 8 rounds.”
That, pardon, was hilariously off the mark. At least, Alvarez did not cry he got robbed.
Truth is his claim of a big victory was as cockeyed as the score submitted by the woman judge in the official panel.
Experts and plain fans were one in damning Adelaide Byrd, with most saying she must’ve worked a different fight while posted inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
She was a disaster, a one-woman temblor that rocked and ruined an otherwise splendid night of boxing.
Anyway, after the result was announced as a split draw, Golovkin, regally confident, put on a sparkling blue-and-gold robe fit for biblical monarchs. He was luminous.
Unlike Alvarez, Golovkin kept his calm and dignity. He stated firmly he would like a real fight (with Alvarez) next time out.
He tried to say something not too nice about the judging, but ended up expressing the honest wish Canelo “would stay.”
It’s like this. Canelo had a strong start and also finished splendidly. But for most of the decisive middle rounds, he was hardly in the fight. He was engaged in a footrace, if not trying to race out of the ring.
In short, he failed to fight in the great mano-a-mano manner of revered Mexican greats, old Julio Cesar Chavez and Juan Manuel Marquez, to name only two.
There’s a common nasty phrase for this escape act: fleeing on a bike.
The controversial draw would not sit well with betrayed Mexican fans.
Canelo got booed in the interview portion from top of the ring.
He tried to defend his shameless evasiveness, which normally should’ve cost him several close rounds.
It’s a given a tight round goes to the fighter who carries the fight, not to the one who runs and retreats.
Yes, Canelo has indeed improved vastly since his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013.
Most notable were his younger legs, which he put to good use, not to fight and score, but in scampering out of harm’s way.
In conclusion, those who continue to wonder about the impertinent 118-110 score submitted by Byrd—who claims she had found it hard to score two rounds for Golovkin—could only mean one thing:
The erring judge must’ve shown up for the world championship ready, blind, and willing to work a footrace.