Canelo vs GGG: Adalaide Byrd axed as judge for top fights following controversial scorecard
Official marked Mexican as the clear winner in Las Vegas despite GGG landing many more punches in one-sided fight
THE controversial judge who marked down Gennady Golovkin in his fight with Canelo Alvarez has been stood down temporarily.
Adalaide Byrd ended up being the main talking point of Saturday night after her bizarre score card strongly favoured the Mexican during the Las Vegas stalemate.
Golovkin landed 218 punches compared to Canelo’s 169 but Byrd had the latter winning 118-110.
Her fellow judges were just as perplexed as everyone else, with Dave Moretti favouring Golovkin 115-113 and Don Trella going for 114-114.
And what was even more bizarre was that Byrd had awarded five rounds which Golovkin dominated in the eyes of the other judges to Canelo.
Golovkin was furious with the outcome, saying: “Terrible, unbelievable. This is not good for the sport of boxing.”
And Nevada Athletic Commission executive director Bob Bennett has now confirmed Byrd will take a “small break” in order to escape the limelight.
He added: “I’m not going to put her right back in. She’ll still be in the business but she needs to catch her breath.
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“Like in any profession, you have a bad night. Unfortunately she didn’t do well. I can tell you she conducts training for us, takes judges under her wing, but her score was too wide.”
Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez fumed: “I think she turned in her scorecard before the fight started. I had suspicions when they gave us the list of judges.
“I think she needs to go back to school and learn how to judge a fight. But something has to be done about the judging.”
Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler added: “Scoring it that way for Canelo takes away from the greatness of the performance in the ring.
“Frankly it’s not good for the sport of boxing. You can make an argument there were close rounds, but HBO had Gennady winning by four rounds.”
Meanwhile, Canelo’s promoter Oscar De La Hoya also had his say, concluding: “What was that? People are scratching their heads.
"They’re confused. I’ve been a fighter and as a promoter you want the best for the sport. I’m shocked by that score. I can assure you there is no influence whatsoever.”