THE judge who produced a wildly lopsided score in Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin’s draw with Canelo Alvarez has been disciplined.

In the aftermath of the bout, both fighters, as well as the majority of the boxing community, came out against judge Adelaide Byrd’s 118-110 (for Canelo) score in a bout that was considered a close affair. The other two judges scored the fight 115-113 in Golovkin’s favour and 114-114, respectively.

Many have called for Byrd to be suspended while veteran boxing trainer and commentator Teddy Atlas pointed at corruption as the reason for the score.

Now, a day after the highly-anticipated fight, the Nevada Athletic Commission has said that Byrd will be temporarily stood down from major title fights.

“I’m not going to put her right back in,” Bob Bennett, the Nevada Athletic Commission executive director, said, via the Los Angeles Times.

“She’ll still be in the business … but she needs to catch her breath.”

Byrd has a history of controversial scoring and the GGG-Canelo bout may have been the last straw.

“Like in any profession, you have a bad night,” Bennett said.

“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.”

According to the Times, Bennett will order a meeting with Byrd — who has scored more than 100 title fights — to discuss the card.

It also appears that Byrd is more than aware of the criticism she’s facing, with Mirror Sport reporting — via sources — that the veteran judge ‘wept after checking her phone after the fight and learning of the widespread condemnation and contrasting cards from journalists on social media’.

WHAT GGG’S CAMP SAID AFTER THE SCORING

Both fighters and their respective camps were bemused by Byrd’s scoring, with much of GGG’s team claiming this judging issue is bad for the sport.

“I saw [the] computer, all total punches, I saw people’s reaction,” Golovkin said after the fight.

“It’s terrible, for me, it’s terrible. This is not correct, this is very bad for the sport.”

Golovkin retained his middleweight titles on Sunday (AEST), in a fight where he landed more punches than his opponent.

Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler believes his fighter clearly won the fight.

“Scoring it that way for Canelo takes away from the greatness of the performance in the ring,” he said.

“Frankly, it is not good for the sport of boxing. You can make an argument there were close rounds, but HBO had Gennady winning by four rounds.”

Rounding out Golovkin’s team’s criticism of the scoring was trainer Abel Sanchez, who claims he was wary of the judges before the fight even began.

“I think she (Adelaide Byrd) turned in her scorecard before the fight started,” Sanchez said.

“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.”

WHAT CANELO’S CAMP SAID

Canelo’s camp, while on the positive side of Byrd’s skewed score, remained as diplomatic as possible, but were still critical of the decision.

During the post-fight press conference, Alvarez promoter Oscar De La Hoya admitted he had his fighter as the victor, but understands the outrage around the 118-110 score.

“I was shocked. I’m in shock – 118-110 is a shocker,” he said.

“A lot of people are not understanding 118-110, just like myself.

“I have to say that Byrd, yes, is a competent judge. She’s been doing lots of world (title fights) for many years. But yes, 118-110, yes, yeah, it is – but I can understand 115-113 and the draw, 114-114. I mean, personally, I had it 7-5 for Canelo [115-113]. And people can argue about either way, because it was such a great fight. I mean, that’s the bottom line.”

Canelo Alvarez hits Gennady Golovkin in the sixth round. Source: AFP

At the end of the day, De La Hoya, a boxing legend in his own right, made sure the audience doesn’t forget the substance of the fight.

“These guys fought their heart out,” he said.

“Gennady is a tremendous, tremendous champion and Canelo’s a tremendous, tremendous champion. Everybody has their opinion but that’s what made it such a great, great fight.

WHAT’S NEXT IN THE GGG-CANELO RIVALRY

With the scores to close to call — for most — Sunday’s draw between the pair isn’t the last time we’ll see the two middleweights go at it.

De La Hoya revealed after the bout that his fighter has a contractual immediate rematch clause, and he intends to use it.

Immediately after the fight, both athletes were open to the idea of a rematch, and it’s likely we’ll see one happen in May of 2018.

According to the official purse reports, Canelo took home a minimum of $5 million from Sunday’s fight, while Golovkin took home no less than $3 million.

A rematch would likely see the pair rake in even more.