Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez vs. Billy Joe Saunders - 8 May 2021

[mickey1975]

Big Mick H ranting to Vitali about the ring was absolute gold.

Peter said his piece, too. He really would have gone home.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Hearn: Saunders, Team Knew Process Of Selecting Judges For Canelo Fight; Was In Contract

Eddie Hearn resents the implication that Billy Joe Saunders and his team weren’t well-prepared for the process of selecting judges for his upcoming showdown with Canelo Alvarez.

Hearn, who promotes Saunders and Alvarez, responded to criticism from Tom Saunders, Billy Joe’s father, during a recent interview with IFL TV. Among other things, Hearn explained that England’s Saunders and his team knew there would not be a British judge assigned to his fight against Alvarez when he signed his contract for their 12-round, 168-pound title unification fight.

Hearn had mentioned before AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, was chosen as the site for the Alvarez-Saunders match May 8 that he wanted one British judge, one Mexican judge and one neutral judge.

The Texas Combative Sports Program, which regulates boxing in that state, ultimately will choose the judges it assigns to the Alvarez-Saunders bout. Like most state and tribal commissions in the United States, the Texas commission has afforded Saunders and Alvarez opportunities to object to judges submitted into the pool of possible officials for their fight.

Commissions aren’t obliged to remove judges or referees to whom boxers object, but those officials typically are eliminated from the pool to avoid controversy on fight night.

“Maybe where the problem is when we originally discussed the fight, we talked about having a British judge, a Mexican judge and an American judge,” Hearn told IFL TV. “Now we’re just having three neutral judges. But the contract that Billy Joe signed clearly states no Mexican [judge], no British [judge], neutral judges. And they will have the opportunity to look at those judges, and if they have an objection, they can do that through the commission.

“So, I explained that to Billy. I explained that to Tom in Vegas. It was taken on board and the panel will be sent to those guys. Now, you know, this was something that was discussed with their team. It was something that was papered. This was something that was signed for. There’s no moving of goal posts.”

In hindsight, Hearn is glad there won’t be a British judge and a Mexican judge assigned to their fight for Alvarez’s WBA and WBC 168-pound championships and Saunders’ WBO belt.

“Ultimately, I don’t like having a Mexican judge, to be honest with you, and where you’ve got, you know, a judge from a country,” Hearn said. “That brings in all kinds of problems with scoring. I’d rather have a neutral panel, which is what he will have. And we will make sure every judge – I’ve already spoken to his team. I think this is probably where the disconnect comes. You know, I’ve spoken to his team, I’ve spoken to MTK [Global, Saunders’ management group]. They are aware of the situation. The judges will be sent to them. They will have an opportunity to review them, as will Canelo Alvarez’s team.

“If there’s any objection before the fight about someone they’re not happy with, they can object to that. And those conversations are ongoing. I’m not gonna go into them, but they’re happy with their position. But again, this is not something that was in a contract, and I just changed now. This was signed in a contract. OK? No Mexican, no British, a neutral panel of judges, and that’s what there will be. And I will make sure that there are no objections from them. And I will do my job as a representative of Billy Joe Saunders, to make sure that him and his management company are happy with the selected judges.”

Mexico’s Alvarez (55-1-2, 37 KOs) has received controversial benefits of the doubt on scorecards in certain instances – most notably in his split-decision victory over Erislandy Lara, his split draw with Gennadiy Golovkin and his majority-decision defeat to Floyd Mayweather.

“The problem is when you have a massive star, a massive name,” Hearn said, “someone that’s selling thousands and thousands of tickets, you know, Tom Saunders made a good point, you know, or I think it might’ve been Billy. When, you know, someone slips a shoulder and he throws a jab, and 70,000 people go mad, that’s what you’re up against. There’s nothing about corruption. I will make sure that we have three outstanding judges on this panel. Right? The commission will choose them. And if anyone’s unhappy, they can make their case. But ultimately, we don’t choose the judges. The commission will tell us the judges. We can object to those. All right? You object to the commission for various reasons. This one may have judged a Canelo Alvarez fight before and given a bad card. Or this one might, you know, there’s many reasons that you feel that a judge wasn’t the correct candidate. This happens all the time. And that’s what their team will do.

“I actually don’t think there will be any objections, to be honest with you, because I think a first-class panel will be put forward. So, I want him to just concentrate on the fight. There’s too much talking, you know, about the judges. You’ve got a fight to fight. You’ll see, you know, as Billy Joe says, really, if Billy Joe Saunders wins this fight comfortably and gets denied a decision, the world will see. I don’t believe that’ll happen. I believe he’ll get a fair crack at the whip. But he is up, as you just said, to your point, against the biggest star in boxing, in front of 60,000 Mexican fans, in Dallas.”

[margaret thatcher]

much ado about nothing, as said, judges nationality means about f@ck all, they could bring in judges from africa, asia, and antarctica and you'd still see the same a-side slant. 3 uk judges would still be more likely to give canelo rather than saunders the benefit of the doubt too

[Ruthless-RKO]

much ado about nothing, as said, judges nationality means about f@ck all, they could bring in judges from africa, asia, and antarctica and you'd still see the same a-side slant. 3 uk judges would still be more likely to give canelo rather than saunders the benefit of the doubt too

Yeh, UK judges haven't faired that well in US ..

Off the top of my head..

Dave Parris scored Porter-Brook: 114-114, the other 2 (non-UK) judges had Brook winning. TBH, I agreed with Parris.

Judge/Ref Phil Edwards scored Wilder-Fury 1: 113-113 draw.. the other 2 (non-UK) judges had them split.

Terry O'Connor score 118-110 in favour of Parker against Hughie. The other 2 (non-UK) judges scored 118-110 and 114-114.. Tel was supposed to be the ref, but Parker’s team appealed this big time, he was then installed as a judge instead. ALSO, this one took place in the UK..

Looking back, do BrItish refs feel the need to be ‘extra fair’ when judging fights abroad? In case they produce a ‘fair’ scorecard and get criticised.

There probably more examples..

[margaret thatcher]

larry o connell had lewis-holy 1 a draw too

[Ruthless-RKO]

larry o connell had lewis-holy 1 a draw too

Thanks for chipping in mate..

You see where I’m coming from?

We see foreign judges come to the UK and get annihilated for some scorecards, where the BBBofC intervene etc.. but UK judges do the same in UK, and nothing.

Unless UK judges just don’t fancy British boxers winning abroad?

[mickey1975]

much ado about nothing, as said, judges nationality means about f@ck all, they could bring in judges from africa, asia, and antarctica and you'd still see the same a-side slant. 3 uk judges would still be more likely to give canelo rather than saunders the benefit of the doubt too

Yeh, UK judges haven't faired that well in US ..

Off the top of my head..

Dave Parris scored Porter-Brook: 114-114, the other 2 (non-UK) judges had Brook winning. TBH, I agreed with Parris.

Judge/Ref Phil Edwards scored Wilder-Fury 1: 113-113 draw.. the other 2 (non-UK) judges had them split.

Terry O'Connor score 118-110 in favour of Parker against Hughie. The other 2 (non-UK) judges scored 118-110 and 114-114.. Tel was supposed to be the ref, but Parker’s team appealed this big time, he was then installed as a judge instead. ALSO, this one took place in the UK..

Looking back, do BrItish refs feel the need to be ‘extra fair’ when judging fights abroad? In case they produce a ‘fair’ scorecard and get criticised.

There probably more examples..

Big Terry writes his in the hotel the night before. And it was in Manchester.

[coghaugen11]

Paul Thomas is an odd one - scoring Eubank-Wharton almost a draw (Chris won every minute of every round). Then scoring Eubank-Calzaghe close (Chris lost 11 out of 12 rounds).

[coghaugen11]

Paul Thomas from Derby

Reffed fights too

[maverick23]

Paul Thomas is an odd one - scoring Eubank-Wharton almost a draw (Chris won every minute of every round). Then scoring Eubank-Calzaghe close (Chris lost 11 out of 12 rounds).

Back to 90s British super middleweights.

[coghaugen11]

90s referees/judges*

[coghaugen11]

much ado about nothing, as said, judges nationality means about f@ck all, they could bring in judges from africa, asia, and antarctica and you'd still see the same a-side slant. 3 uk judges would still be more likely to give canelo rather than saunders the benefit of the doubt too

Yeh, UK judges haven't faired that well in US ..

Off the top of my head..

Dave Parris scored Porter-Brook: 114-114, the other 2 (non-UK) judges had Brook winning. TBH, I agreed with Parris.

Judge/Ref Phil Edwards scored Wilder-Fury 1: 113-113 draw.. the other 2 (non-UK) judges had them split.

Terry O'Connor score 118-110 in favour of Parker against Hughie. The other 2 (non-UK) judges scored 118-110 and 114-114.. Tel was supposed to be the ref, but Parker’s team appealed this big time, he was then installed as a judge instead. ALSO, this one took place in the UK..

Looking back, do BrItish refs feel the need to be ‘extra fair’ when judging fights abroad? In case they produce a ‘fair’ scorecard and get criticised.

There probably more examples..

Big Terry writes his in the hotel the night before. And it was in Manchester.

1:15

[cutsman]

Haven’t seen this film. Will watch ASAP

[ShadrachSimmo]

Haven’t seen this film. Will watch ASAP

It’s a good film. Gary Stretch plays a decent villian.

[Nondescript]

BJS is nice fella. Gotta root for him.

Yeah nice I guess if you find a world class professional boxer inciting drug addicts to attack members of the public with the promise of some money for drugs as nice, then yeah I guess he's nice.

Or maybe it was him encouraging his young son to punch opponents in the balls that made you value him as a nice person.

[Nondescript]

and if we're deciding to hand canelo hypothetical losses for all his close fights, bill is taking some losses in there too, except to a guy like akakov, not guys like ggg lol


that said......when it comes to the question of canelo becoming overrated, possibly..........ive seen talk of him moving up to cw and handily beating guys like dorticos, then going on to hw and beating contenders up there too. seems a bit extreme doesnt it!

although on the other hand, former mws have done similar, eg james toney

I wouldn't be shocked if Canelo went up to 175 and beat Beterviev though. He strikes me as pretty slow and also a little chinny if I'm honest. Can whack though obviously.

[jamesmcdonnell]

I can see canelo ending up at HW, he has a huge jaw, neck and torso. Not sure there's many he can beat above 175, but if he chose opponents carefully, and there's a weak beltholder, maybe he can emulate RJJ.

[coghaugen11]

Saunders is an absolute scumbag, just look at his face - his eyes - and you see it. Like he’s warped.

[Ruthless-RKO]

I can see canelo ending up at HW, he has a huge jaw, neck and torso. Not sure there's many he can beat above 175, but if he chose opponents carefully, and there's a weak beltholder, maybe he can emulate RJJ.

He said yesterday, he won’t fight at 175 again..

[jamesmcdonnell]

I can see canelo ending up at HW, he has a huge jaw, neck and torso. Not sure there's many he can beat above 175, but if he chose opponents carefully, and there's a weak beltholder, maybe he can emulate RJJ.

He said yesterday, he won’t fight at 175 again..

Doesn't mean he won't fight above it.

[coghaugen11]

I can only think of Woodhall and Billy as top super middleweights to make the Olympics. Wharton has even got his tracksuit but never made it. The rest never got close.

You don’t consider DeGale or Reid once world champion ‘super middles’? They both medaled. Rod Douglas lost in the quarters to world #1 Shawn O’Sullivan and the dec certainly could’ve gone Rod’s way. Both Close and Calzaghe were shafted, and Froch was close.

[coghaugen11]

And Groves beat DeGale with vests.

Benn beat Douglas at Bethnal Green.

[coghaugen11]

A very raw Chris Eubank Sr fought Mark Breland and Dennis Milton in short notice fights, losing by controversial stoppage to Breland and 1-4 to Milton in Milton’s toughest amateur fight (Milton had faced and beat Iran Barkley, Frank Tate, Michael Nunn and Reggie Johnson).

[coghaugen11]

https://groups.google.com/g/rec.sport.b ... odVWTbxpkJ

Jim Borzell first reply

[Nondescript]

I can see canelo ending up at HW, he has a huge jaw, neck and torso. Not sure there's many he can beat above 175, but if he chose opponents carefully, and there's a weak beltholder, maybe he can emulate RJJ.

He said yesterday, he won’t fight at 175 again..

Eddie Reynoso has talked about Canelo fighting at 175 again if he clears through 168. Canelo seems to listen to Eddie.