Who was Mayweather vs. McGregor referee? Meet Robert Byrd

High profile judging mistakes and other controversies have stolen the headlines in the sport of boxing recently, and with more eyes than ever on the upcoming fight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor, everyone involved would like to avoid such a fate on Aug. 26. One aspect of the fight that shouldn’t be poorly-received anywhere is the inclusion of Robert Byrd as the referee.

Both Mayweather and McGregor agreed to Byrd as the referee of choice for their match. Byrd is a veteran referee who has only ever worked one Mayweather fight in the past, a decision win over Robert Guerrero in May 2013. Kenny Bayless, another veteran referee who has worked several Mayweather fights, was excluded from contention for the Mayweather vs. McGregor fight due to him being publicly against the fight.

But does the news that Byrd is refereeing this fight work out in either competitor’s favor? Not really.

Byrd isn’t a referee with a long history of controversial matches under his belt. He’s known as someone who tends to let holding and wrestling happen a lot more than some other veteran referees, and that might ultimately favor the kind of game McGregor needs to work to win the fight, but it’s nothing egregious.

Recently, Byrd refereed the first fight between Andre Ward and Sergey Kovalev, a bout that Ward won by unanimous decision while he utilized a gameplan that involved plenty of grappling.

In the Mayweather vs. Guerrero matchup, Byrd spent little time making decisions. It was a clean fight for the most part, one that Guerrero wanted to make dirtier with inside boxing and some holding of his own, but Mayweather has always been adept at getting away from that kind of thing without referee interference. Byrd didn’t have to separate them much and neither fighter got on his bad side. It was a standard matchup, one that drew no criticisms for Byrd.

McGregor might be hoping on a wayward punch knocking Mayweather out early, but realistically, his gameplan likely relies on him weathering a long storm while roughing Mayweather up as much as he can over time. He’ll want to try and bully Mayweather, an incredibly difficult task, and Byrd is a good referee for that kind of gameplan, at the very least. Mayweather is the better technical boxer by a mile, and McGregor needs to blur those lines with physicality and anything he can get away with.

Byrd is generally considered to be a good referee by boxing fans, and he has about as much experience as any other referee on the circuit. He is 74 years old and has been licensed in Nevada since 2002. He is married to Adalaide Byrd, also a boxing referee who has worked most recently as a mixed martial arts judge.

Byrd was also the man in the middle for Canelo Alvarez’s win over Miguel Cotto, and Badou Jack’s win over George Groves. Ultimately, there isn’t a whole lot to take from his appointment in Mayweather vs. McGregor outside of him generally being regarded as a fair referee who lets the boxers do what they do in the ring.