Mario Lopez is huge combat sports fan and has been for a long time. He been a boxing practioner, wrestling competitor, and even has his kids enrolled in Brazilian jiu jitsu. Along with being a huge UFC fan, he was also a very interested observer during last weekend Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin fight and needless to say he was pretty upset about judges scorecards. He spoke to Ariel Helwani earlier this week about his thoughts on what went down.
“This fight was a great fight, I think it delivered on it’s promises: It got intense, it got heated. It’s hard to root against either fighter, I happen to know both fighters — I’ve actually sparred with both fighters — and I know them well and they’re gentlemen outside of the ring. They’re class acts, they’re really cool, but I felt like the nod should’ve maybe gone to Gennady.
“When it was all said and done, he initiated most of the action, he let his hands go through more, he had the constant pressure. And although Canelo showed resilience, a stout set of whiskers, he looked comfortable at middleweight, he countered, I just felt like fighting in 30 second spurts wasn’t enough.”
Lopez strongly feels that the bad judging spoiled what was a very action packed fight.
“You should never know a judge’s name, and whenever the judge is starting to get more (publicity) and it’s overshadowing a really good fight between two of the best boxers in the world, that’s just such a stain on the evening,” Lopez explained.
“She literary gave ‘GGG’ two rounds of the fight. That was criminal. She should’ve been arrested. It looks like a predetermined scorecard from the get. And the irony was that there was a lot of buzz that she should’ve not been involved from the get. She’s judged hundreds of these before and she’s been met with controversy before, so it was unfortunate. The other two judges had it a little more in line.”
Either way Mario feels that a rematch should be what’s next and it’s what the fans want as well.
“It was very, very close,” Lopez said. “It’s not the worst decision in the world and I’m not incredibly upset about the draw, a rematch would’ve been warranted regardless if Gennady would have gotten the nod. I think regardless they could’ve done it again and everyone wins.”
