Boxing Judge Adalaide Byrd Has A History Of Unpredictable Results
After Saturday night's megafight between Gennady Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez came to an end, judge Adalaide Byrde found herself at the center of controversy after scoring the fight 118–110 in favor of Alvarez and leading to the split decision at T-Mobile Arena.
According to her scorecard, Golovkin only won the fourth and seventh round. Many seemed to disagree and believed that Golovkin won a majority of the fight after waking up in the third round.
Here's how she scored the fight:
Round 1: 10–9 to Alvarez
Round 2: 10– to Alvarez (20–18 Canelo)
Round 3: 10–9 to Alvarez (30–27 Canelo)
Round 4: 10–9 to Golovkin (39–37 Canelo)
Round 5: 10–9 to Alvarez (49–46 Canelo)
Round 6: 10–9 to Alvarez (59–55 Canelo)
Round 7: 10–9 to Golovkin (68–65 Canelo)
Round 8: 10–9 to Alvarez (78–74 Canelo)
Round 9: 10–9 to Alvarez (88–83 Canelo)
Round 10: 10–9 to Alvarez (98–92 Canelo)
Round 11: 10–9 to Alvarez (109–101 Canelo)
Round 12: 10–9 to Alvarez (118–110 Canelo)
According to Bryan Armen Graham of The Guardian, Nevada Athletic Commission executive director Bob Bennett defended Byrd after he controversial decision.
"That's the life of a judge," Bennett said. "She had a bad night in a big fight. She saw the fight in a different way."
Byrd has a history among those in the boxing circles. She scored Canelo Alvarez's one-sided victory over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. with a 120–108 card. In Alvarez's sixth round knockout of Amir Khan, she had scored it 48–47 in favor of Khan before he went down.
In November, Top Rank vice president of Boxing Operations Carl Moretti told BoxingScene.com that the promoters asked the Nevada Athletic Commission that she not serve as one of the judges for the Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Nicholas Walters fight but they did not get their wish granted.
“We respectfully requested that Adalaide Byrd not be assigned to this fight,” Moretti said. “From there it went on to a conversation [with NSAC executive director Bob Bennett] about how she is a good judge. Some judges can have good nights and can have bad nights. But when she has bad nights, she seems to be too far away from the score. Bob defended her left and right. He didn’t wanna listen to our objection.”
He threw some shade on Twitter after the Golovkin and Alvarez split decision:
She has also judged MMA since 2006 and was at the heart of the controversial Lenard Garcia decision over Nan Phan in the Ultimate Fighter 12 finale in 2010. She scored it 29–28 in favor of Garcia despite many believing Phan won.
