Canelo to fight Beterbiev or Bivol in 2022 says Eddy Reynoso

By Boxing News - 06/26/2021 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: Canelo Alvarez’s trainer Eddy Reynoso has confirmed that he plans on challenging for a world title in 2022 against either IBF/WBC champion Artur Beterbiev or WBA champ Dimitry Bivol.

It takes courage to fight Beterbiev or Bivol, and Canelo would receive a massive amount of credit by fighting one or both. Even if Canelo loses, it would show bravery on his part to take this challenge.

This obviously hinges on WBA/WBC/WBO 168-lb champion Canelo (56-1-2, 38 KOs) picking up the last belt at super middleweight against IBF champion Caleb Plant on September 11th.

Some boxing fans will argue that the only reason Canelo is finally showing interest in fighting the unbeaten Beterbiev (16-0, 16 KOs) and Bivol (18-0, 11 KOs) is because both of them looked awful in their last fights.

Beterbiev, 36, struggled to defeat a very average-looking Adam Deines before knocking him out in the tenth round earlier this year on March 20th.

Granted, Beterbiev was coming off of a long layoff, which was caused by a COVID 19 illness and injuries, but there’s no ignoring the fact that he didn’t look anywhere near the fighter that he’d been before the layoff.

Image: Canelo to fight Beterbiev or Bivol in 2022 says Eddy Reynoso

For his part, Bivol (18-0, 11 KOs) had massive problems beating little-known British fighter Craig Richards by a narrow 12 round unanimous decision on May 1st.

Bivol looked scared of Richards throughout the contest and failed to go after him in the way he needed to score a knockout or dominate.

In the first couple of rounds, Richards looked very basic and easy to beat, but when he saw how timid Bivol was, it appeared to give him confidence, and he went on the attack in the second half of the fight.

Bivol looked nothing like the fighter that had beaten Joe Smith Jr, Jean Pascal, and Sullivan Barrera during his best year.

Reynoso said that Canelo, 30, WON’T be returning to the 160-lb division to fight against anyone.

“Let’s go for Beterbiev and Bivol and in 160 never again, not even for GGG,” said Reynoso.

This is obviously bad news for WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo because he’s been asking Canelo to come down to 160 so that they can fight.

It’s not a big deal for Gennadiy Golovkin to come up to 168 to fight Canelo. GGG would likely take that fight with Canelo no matter what weight class he’s at. It’s a different story for Jermall, who insists that Canelo come down to 160 before he agrees to fight him.

Despite being bigger than Canelo, Jermall (32-0, 22 KOs) doesn’t want to come up to 168 and fight him or David Benavidez.

Image: Canelo to fight Beterbiev or Bivol in 2022 says Eddy Reynoso

Now that Canelo has made it clear that he won’t be returning to the 160-lb division, Charlo can either come up in weight to 168 or stop name-dropping if he has no intention of going up to super middleweight challenge him for his belts.

“We’re going to sit down with Caleb Plant’s promoter, which is Al Haymon, and hopefully come to an agreement, but we’re not going to tie ourselves with any promoter,” said Eddy Reynoso this week.

Canelo captured the WBO light heavyweight title from Sergey Kovalev in 2019. But rather than stay at 175 to take on IBF/WBC champ Beterbiev or WBA champion Bivol, Canelo returned to the 168-lb division and beat Callum Smith, Avni Yildirim, and Billy Joe Saunders.