The Continuing Story Of Dewey, Cheatem & Howe
By William Trillo
Photos: German Villasenor
Okay, let’s be honest here. When the judges’ scorecards were getting read by David Diamante after the Bivol vs. Canelo fight and he announced identical scores of 115-113 by all three judges, how many of you immediately thought, “Uh oh! No way, they are going to give this fight to Canelo.” I know I did. In fact, Dmitry Bivol himself said he was worried when he heard those 115-113 scores.
But as we found out moments later the unanimous decision was rightly given to Bivol. As it should have been.
At the time none of us knew that if Canelo had found a way to win the last round, the fight would have been scored a draw.
What?
Now, I am the last one to suggest there might have been some shenanigans going on here, (why did you just blow your soda out of your nose), but c’mon. Did you know that the scorecards were 100% identical in every way, shape and form? Like Carbon Copies. And they wonder why at times we suggest that maybe the scorecards were written out in advance.
It’s scores like this that have most of us scratching our heads.
Look, I had a wonderful Birds Eye View of this fight. I watched it without the sway or slant of any “Home Team” announcers. I jotted down notes in between rounds and scored the fight in real time, live.
As I saw it Bivol was in complete control for all but a few rounds. I gave him the fight by a score of 117-111. Outside of rounds 1, 2 & 9, I don’t see how anyone could give Canelo another round, even if they were being generous.
With the footwork of a Ballerina, superior head movement and a set of extremely large Cajones, Bivol stayed in the pocket almost the entire night. He smothered, blocked and parried any and everything Canelo was attempting, and he did that all night long.
The look of frustration was plastered all over Canelos face by round 4 and without a Plan B, the best Canelo could do was lay against the ropes and hope Bivol would make a tactical error. As we know that never happened.
I digress…let’s get back to Dewey, Cheatem & Howe.
Assuming they didn’t really write out the scorecards before the fight one has to wonder… “What the heck were these guys looking at?”
Bivol schooled Canelo, plain and simple. The evidence was that look of utter frustration on the face of Canelo when the final bell rang. That look said it all.
I rest my case.
Check out www.Pound4Pound.com for all the latest boxing news.
