Less than one month before Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin are set to face off once again, the Nevada State Athletic Commission has assigned the ring officials for the September 15 pay-per-view main event.
In a recent commission meeting, the NSAC has appointed Benjy Esteves Jr. to be the referee for the highly-anticipated fight for the unified WBA, WBC and IBO middleweight titles. In addition to Esteves being named the referee, the NSAC appointed Dave Moretti, Steve Weisfeld and Glenn Feldman to be the three official judges for the fight.
The appointment of ring officials is notable for this fight as the first bout between the two boxers ended in a controversial split draw. Although the boxing community was mostly content with two of the three scorecards (a 114-114 draw and 115-113 in favor of Golovkin), it was Adalaide Byrd's highly-disputed 118-110 card in favor of Alvarez that not only cost Golovkin a win, but also angered many of the sport's pundits, feeling that Golovkin was robbed.
This collection of ring officials is mostly different than the group of ring officials for the first fight. Moretti will be the lone returning official from the first fight and Moretti was the only judge to score the fight in favor of Golovkin as it was Don Trella who was the one to score the fight a 114-114 draw.
Alvarez vs. Golovkin 2 will headline a stacked HBO pay-per-view card at the T-Mobile Arena on September 15 that will also include Jaime Munguia vs. Brandon Cook for the WBO junior middleweight title and the return of former world champion Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez.
