Canelo vs. Jacobs officials announced for May 4

By Boxing News - 04/24/2019 - Comments

Image: Canelo vs. Jacobs officials announced for May 4

By Sean Jones: The officials have been confirmed for the May 4th unification fight between WBA/WBC middleweight champion Saul Canelo Alvarez and IBF champion Daniel Jacobs, and it’s potentially bad news for the “Miracle Man.”

The officials that will be working the fight Canelo-Jacobs fight next month on DAZN are the EXACT same three judges that worked the Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin rematch on September 15 last year at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Those three judges had Canelo winning a 12 round majority decision by the scores 115-113, 115-113 for Alvarez, and 113-113.

Here are the judges and referee that will be working the Canelo vs. Jacobs fight on May 4 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas:

– Referee: Tony Weeks

– Judge: Dave Moretti

– Judge: Steve Weisfield

– Judge: Glenn Feldman

with those three judges working the May 4th Canelo-Jacobs fight, it looks like the deck is stacked against Jacobs now. Not only does look bad with the judges, but Jacobs also has these things going against him:

10 pound rehydration clause

T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas: This is the same venue Canelo twice was involved with controversial decisions against Gennady Golovkin

It’s unclear if Jacobs’ promoter Eddie Hearn at Matchroom Boxing USA can challenge any or all of those judges to have them all thrown out due to them having worked Canelo’s second fight controversial fight with GGG. But even if Hearn is able to get those three thrown out, there’s a good chance that the replacements would be some of the judges that worked the first Canelo vs. Golovkin fight in September 2017. In that case, there’s a possibility that Adalaide Byrd or Don Trella would be the replacements. You never know. Moretti worked the first Canelo-Golovkin fight. He was the judge that scored it for Golovkin by a 115-113 score.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91CBwnRXSJM

There had been rumors this week that one of the judges that would be working the Canelo-Jacobs fight was Adalaide Byrd. She’s the judge that scored the first Canelo-GGG fight for Canelo by the score 118-110, which comes out to 10 rounds to 2. That score was so out of wack from the fight that took place inside the ring that night, it just looked embarrassingly. Not only was the referee Byrd ridiculed, but so was Canelo, because she scored the fight in his favor by such a wide margin.

Canelo vs. Jacobs is the best fight out there right now. You’ve got a good boxer, a good puncher. I think it’s going to be very exciting,” trainer Freddie Roach said to Fighthub. “I think it’s going to be really, really exciting. I’m anxious to see who wins.”

You can argue that Canelo vs. Golovkin 3 is the best fight out there. Jacobs lost to GGG, so he’s not the best option for Canelo. Canelo vs. Jermall Charlo would be a very good fight as well if not for Charlo looking so bad in his last fight against Matt Korobov last December. Roach is just making his own subjective opinion about his belief that Canelo vs. Jacobs is the best fight in the middleweight division today. In terms of the subscribers, it’s a slam dunk that Canelo vs. Golovkin 3 is by far the biggest fight out there. When that fight eventually happens, it’s likely going to bring in many more subscribers than Canelo vs. Jacobs. Golovkin is a bigger name than Jacobs, and that didn’t change with his recent controversial 12 round majority decision defeat to Alvarez last September at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

“Canelo, because he’s the better fighter,” Roach said when asked who wins the trilogy fight between Canelo and Golovkin. “Triple G is my friend. I’m sorry, but that’s the way I feel. I think his best days are behind him,” Roach said about Golovkin.

Roach may be right about Golovkin’s best days being behind him, but that doesn’t erase the fact that he was still seen as the winner of both fights with Canelo by a huge portion of boxing fans. What does that say about Canelo when a guy whose best days are behind him is seen as having beaten him not once but TWICE. It suggests that Canelo isn’t as good as some boxing fans think he is. Golovkin was 32 when he first wanted to fight Canelo. He didn’t get a chance to face him until he was 35. Why did Golden Boy have Golovkin wait three years before they finally made that fight?

We don’t know how long Canelo has left either. Will Canelo still be a factor when he’s Golovkin’s age at 37? It’s doubtful. Once Canelo loses his hand speed and starts taking on taller guys that box him from the outside, which is what Golovkin did in the first fight with him, he’ll struggle and start losing. Of course, if the judging is similar to the judging in the first Canelo-GGG fight, then maybe he won’t lose, but he’ll lose fans for sure if he keeps being involved in controversial decisions that go his way.