Max Kellerman and some of his fellow HBO commentators were noticeably pro-Canelo Alvarez on the broadcast for Saturday night’s fight between Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin.
Alvarez won a majority decision over Golovkin in the rematch between the men at T-Mobile Arena. One judge scored it as a draw 114-114 and the other two judges had it 115-113 in favor of Canelo.
Most people thought it was a close fight — which the scoring bears out — but those watching HBO’s coverage felt Kellerman’s commentary told a different story. Most of his comments focused on Alvarez dominating the fight, controlling the fight, throwing more punches and doing more damage. He was focused on pointing out all the body shots Alvarez was throwing, even when many were missing. His comments about Golovkin suggested that GGG looked “old” and was unable to do much damage to the Mexican fighter.
All of his commentary was countered by HBO scorer Harold Lederman, whose scoring had the fight more balanced or in favor of GGG.
The seeming bias was not lost on viewers.
Can Max Kellerman make it ANYMORE obvious that he wants Canelo to win the fight? Give it a rest.
— FROmagnum???????? (@FroMagnum__) September 16, 2018
Kellerman doing his best to fatten Canelo's next purse, man sells better than Paul Heyman and he's on the call!
— Edgar Allan Prole (@RelationBack) September 16, 2018
GGG throws his best combination of the fight and Kellerman still finds a way to turn it into a positive for Canelo.
— The MMATOB Guy (@themmatob) September 16, 2018
Kellerman been talkin crazy. Come on Max!
— T.J. Ward (@BossWard43) September 16, 2018
Max Kellerman keeps saying GGG is gonna start wearing down. So I now fully expect GGG to win the fight. #cliff
— Mike Cole (@MikeColeNESN) September 16, 2018
I know one thing that's clear as day is the commentary is wildly biased for Canelo. Mostly Fake News Kellerman
— Big day one fan (@JSanford301) September 16, 2018
Max Kellerman talking like GGG is washed lol
— gifdsports (@gifdsports) September 16, 2018
Verrrrry bizarre how Kellerman and Roy Jones are talkin entire fight about Canelo like he is dominating.
— Chris Vernon (@ChrisVernonShow) September 16, 2018
Whether you agree with the final outcome or not, most can agree that the fight was much closer than Kellerman made it seem.
