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Referee Kenny Bayless gets Canelo-Khan assignment on May 7

Fighters Network
19
Apr

Referee Kenny Bayless has been there for the low points in the careers of Canelo Alvarez and Amir Khan. Now, he will get a chance to see a high point — at least for one of them.

The officials for Alvarez’s middleweight championship against Khan on May 7 were agreed upon Tuesday at a Nevada State Athletic Commission agenda hearing. Bayless will be the third man in the ring for Alvarez’s RING and WBC middleweight (155 pounds) bout at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on HBO Pay-Per-View. The assigned judges are: Adalaide Byrd, Glenn Trowbridge and Glenn Feldman. Bayless will pocket $4,150 while the three judges will each take home $2,950 for their night’s work.

Of course, Bayless is no stranger to super fights or to Alvarez and Khan. The referee with the intense glare and black gloves was the referee for Alvarez’s super fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013 in which Alvarez was thoroughly outclassed and lost a decision. Bayless also oversaw perhaps the lowest moment of Khan’s career when he was knocked down three times and stopped by Danny Garcia in the fourth round of their 2012 junior welterweight unification bout.

The troika of judges are all longtime observers who have avoided controversy in recent years. Byrd has scored many high profile fights, such as Adrien Broner vs. Shawn Porter (she had Broner losing by a 114-112 margin while the two other judges had Porter winning more comfortably).



Trowbridge is another experienced judge. He had Manny Pacquiao winning easily (118-110) against Timothy Bradley back on April of 2014 in their second fight. He also had Danny Garcia winning 115-111 over Lucas Matthysse in Garcia’s 2013 unanimous decision victory. Feldman has nearly 800 bouts under his belt, including Mayweather-Pacquiao (116-112 for Mayweather).

Byrd and Feldman will be evaluating Alvarez for the first time; Trowbridge had Khan eking out a 113-112 victory over Marcos Maidana in their 2010 slugfest, which Khan won by unanimous decision.

All four officials oversaw Gilberto Ramirez’s decision victory against Arthur Abraham earlier this month for a super middleweight title. The trio turned in identical scorecards (120-108) for Ramirez. Out of the four officials, only Feldman is not a Nevada resident. He is from Connecticut.

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