Trainer turned analyst Teddy Atlas has weighed in on the forgettable undisputed contest between Saul ‘Canelo‘ Alvarez and William Scull.
The two super-middleweight champions met in Riyadh Saudi Arabia, with Scull bringing Canelo’s old IBF belt to the table after picking it up when the Mexican vacated it last year.
After twelve hard to watch rounds, in which Scull moved around the ring constantly in order to keep out of trouble, Canelo’s minimal work earned him a unanimous decision with the scores of 115-113, 116-112 and 119-109.
Speaking on his podcast, The Fight, Atlas discussed the judging and revealed that he could see a Scull win but was not offended by it going the other way.
“I know people are gonna crucify me for this, but if I’m nothing else, I’m gonna be consistent. I’m gonna say what I believe … I can see giving it to [Scull]. I can see the possibility of it being a draw or a one point win for Scull.
“‘Teddy, who would you have given it to?’ I’m not saying I would’ve gave it to Scull, I’m just saying I wouldn’t have been shocked… I would’ve been shocked because I knew Canelo wouldn’t lose the fight in this situation, they’re not gonna give it to anyone other than Canelo. But, I wouldn’t have been in my mind shocked that Scull could’ve earned a one point win or a draw.
“At the end of the day, I have no problem with Canelo getting it. If I wanted to torture myself and watch the fight again, I might even give it to Canelo by a point or two. I can see it either way. What I see mostly, is that, if technically Scull won, which I think there’s a possibility he did if we take emotion out of it … and you just look at it in a cold way, I can see technically the reason that you could look at Scull to get it.
“Having said that, I wouldn’t give it to him because I thought he lost the right to complain about being robbed … You lose the right to argue, you lose the right to get us to be on your side and feel bad for you, because of the way you went about it … You didn’t behave the way we want to see a guy behave in order to take a title.”
Canelo moves into a mega fight with Terence Crawford this coming September in Las Vegas.
