On episode 248 of The Neutral Corner boxing podcast, host Michael Montero sounded off on incompetent judges in the sport. Last weekend, Robeisy Ramirez scored a TKO6 win over Brandon Valdes on the Stevenson-Clary undercard in Las Vegas. Ramirez dominated the fight, and two judges had him wide ahead at the time of the stoppage. Curiously, Adalaide Byrd had Valdes up 48-47. This was not the first questionable scorecard from Byrd in recent years.

Montero argued that even though this particular scorecard did not affect the outcome of the fight, it’s only a matter of time before we see a replay of Byrd’s infamous 118-110 score for Canelo Alvarez in the first Canelo-GGG fight in 2017.

This issue will not fix itself. Montero implored promoters, managers, trainers and even fighters themselves to push back on commissions when they try to assign inept ring officials to fight cards. 

Review:

Saturday, December 12 was a busy day of boxing in both the UK and USA. In London on DAZN, Anthony Joshua dropped Kubrat Pulev three times, stopping him in the ninth round to defend his unified heavyweight titles. After the fight, promoter Eddie Hearn claimed he will begin negotiating with Tyson Fury’s promoter Bob Arum to make a super-fight between the two best heavyweights in the world.

In Las Vegas, Shakur Stevenson scored a dominant unanimous decision win over Toka Khan Clary. In the co-main, Masayoshi Nakatani got off the canvas twice to beat Felix Verdejo in a fight of the year candidate. Super middleweight prospect Edgar Berlanga kicked off the ESPN tripleheader from Top Rank with another first round knockout. Berlanga is yet to see the second round as a pro.

In Connecticut, undefeated junior lightweight prospect Chris Colbert scored a TKO11 win over Jaime Arboleda in the main event of a PBC card on Showtime.

Preview:

Wednesday, December 16:

New South Wales, Australia

Tim Tszyu vs Bowyn Morgan, 10 rds, 154lbs

Thursday, December 17:

NBC Sports Net, Los Angeles, California

Iranda Paola Torres vs Jelena Mrdjenovich, 10 rds, 126lbs

Friday, December 18:

DAZN, Hollywood, Florida

Gennady Golovkin vs Kamil Szermeta, 12rds, 160lbs

Ali Akhmedov vs Carlos Gongora, 12rds, 168lbs

Fite TV, Galveston, Texas

Gilberto Ramirez vs Alfonso Lopez, 12rds, 175lbs

Saturday, December 19:

DAZN, San Antonio, TX

Saul Alvarez vs Callum Smith, 12rds, 168lbs

Showtime, Uncasville, Connecticut

Emmanuel Rodriguez vs Reymart Gaballo, 12rds, 118lbs

Jaron Ennis vs Chris van Heerden, 12rds, 147lbs

Time Stamps:

@3:00 yet another rant on judges in boxing

@9:40 fight review (DAZN, ESPN, Showtime cards)

@31:00 fight preview (Golovkin and Canelo return) 

Michael Montero can be found on social media via @MonteroOnBoxing. His podcast “The Neutral Corner” can be seen every Monday on TheRingDigital YouTube channel, and heard on audio podcast platforms around the world.