By Max Schramm: Dimitry Bivol could be next for Canelo Alvarez, says Eddie Hearn, but they still need to decide whether the fight will be on September 18th.
Hearn notes there are only seven weeks to go before that date, and it might be too soon for Canelo (56-1-2, 38 KOs) to be taking on WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol (18-0, 11 KOs).
Bivol, 30, would be a huge upgrade in talent compared to his previous opponent Caleb Plant that Canelo was trying to negotiate a fight with.
It’s a much tougher fight for Canelo because Bivol is bigger, stronger and he doesn’t possess the same limited gas tank that Plant had.
“I think Dmitry Bivol’s the fight. He’s ready. We promote him, we’ve spoken to Vadim [Kornilov], his manager, and Andriy Rybinskiy, World Of Boxing, they want the fight, they’ve been looking for that breakout fight for some time,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV on Canelo’s next potential fight.
“I think it’s a really, really good fight, a tough fight. So, we’ll have to see.”
“I spoke to Saul last night a couple of times, and we’re just looking to make the and I think the decision is, do we go September 18th?” said Hearn. “But it’s seven weeks tomorrow, so it’s any day that decision.”
There’s not much time for Canelo to train, but he’s got the talent to compensate for his lack of size. Canelo might be better off if he stays the weight he’s at right now without bulking up.
The way Canelo struggled to beat a very passive and old-looking Sergey Kovalev in 2019, that likely won’t be good enough for him to defeat Bivol. He’s got a good chin, and he’ll take those rare shots from Canelo and beat him with volume and pure boxing.
Canelo’s stamina will be negatively impacted if he adds weight to bulk up to fight at 175.
Adding more muscle weight would be the worst thing Canelo can do for a fight against Bivol because it won’t add a significant improvement in his power, and it also won’t help him take the Russian fighter’s shots better.
He got away with being slower and heavier against Kovalev because he’s shot, and he appeared to be going easy on Canelo.
Some boxing fans believe Kovalev chose not to try and stop Canelo because he was so grateful to him for being chosen for the fight, which gave the Russian fighter a career-high payday of $12 million.
Bivol will try and win, and he’s got the power to make a mess of Canelo’s career.
If Canelo had fought Plant, the chances are high that he would have knocked him out in the second half after the Tennessean ran out of gas. Against Bivol, Canelo could be in the fight of his life, and he’s going to need more training time to prepare for the match.
I mean, you got to respect Canelo if he takes this fight regardless because it’s a bad style match-up for him. Canelo struggled in the first six rounds against Billy Joe Saunders due to his low work rate. That flaw in his game would be exploited to the hilt by Bivol.
With Bivol, though, Canelo couldn’t count on him leaning forward to open himself up for uppercuts the way Saunders recently did last May, and he would tire out the way he did.
Seven weeks of preparation time might not be enough for Canelo to prepare to challenge Bivol for his WBA 175-lb belt. For Canelo to have a shot at dethroning Bivol, he would need an adequate amount of time to bulk up to light heavyweight.
Canelo did a good job of adding a lot of muscle weight to defeat WBO 175-lb champion Sergey Kovalev in