"A lot of people are not understanding 118-110, just like myself," De La Hoya said during the post-fight news conference. He added, "I'm in shock, 118-110 is a shocker."
De La Hoya's reaction was far more diplomatic than some of the other principals. Abel Sanchez, Golovkin's trainer, did not hide his disgust with the ruling.
"I thought one of the judges had her card filled out before she came to the fight," Sanchez said. "That's unfortunate that in Vegas they seem to go to different schools to learn how to judge a fight."
In a utopian world, an outlier scorecard would not have been the dominant topic of conversation after such an outstanding bout. After a few sluggish early rounds, Golovkin, 35, quickly rounded into form and applied intense pressure to Alvarez the rest of the way. Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) absorbed some heavy blows, and responded with some terrific, perfectly placed counter shots to momentarily halt Golovkin's attack. It was a spirited, action-packed, competitive match.
But boxing - as it has proved time and again - is far from utopian. Tom Loeffler, Golovkin's promoter, acknowledged as much.
"Scoring it that wide for Canelo, I think it takes away from a lot of the performance of the two fighters in the ring," Loeffler said. "And frankly, it's just not good for the sport of boxing."
The man chiefly responsible for Adalaide Byrd's presence at ringside, Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Bob Bennett, defended his body's decision to assign Byrd to the match - citing her years of experience judging high-level bouts. But he refused to justify her account of what took place at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday.
"Adalaide Byrd has had over 115 championship fights or elimination bouts," Bennett said. "Unfortunately tonight, she didn't do well. She was off her mark."
As for the fighters, both took umbrage with the decision - declaring themselves to be the true winner.
"This is not correct," Golovkin said. "This is very bad for sport."
"I have no doubt about it in my mind," Alvarez added. "I won the fight.
The numbers paint a murkier picture. According to the statistics tracking service CompuBox, Golovkin was busier and landed more shots by a significant margin. Overall, Golovkin connected on 218 of 703 punches, while Alvarez landed 169 of 505. The Mexican fighter, however, had a slight edge in power connects - besting Golovkin 114 to 110 in that category.