Canelo Alvarez draining Dmitry Bivol, using catchweight

By Boxing News - 08/05/2021 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: Canelo Alvarez (56-1-2, 38 KOs) will be competing against WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol with a catchweight handicap between 168 and 175.

Bivol previously said he would be open to fighting Canelo at 168, BUT he didn’t know at the time that he would be a rush job with a shortened training camp to make the September 18th date.

Canelo will hold Bivol to what he said with him volunteering to come down in weight, even though when he made that offer, he was assuming he would get a FULL eight-week training camp, not six weeks.

This is a bad look on Canelo’s part to require a catchweight for him to challenge Bivol’s WBA light heavyweight title, as he didn’t ask former WBO 175-lb champion Sergey Kovalev for one when they fought in 2019.

However, Kovalev was an old 36, clearly on his last legs as a championship-level fighter at that point in his career.

There was a rehydration clause, though, which made things difficult for the Russian fighter.

Does Canelo need handicaps to beat Bivol?

The catchweight demand is just the beginning of a potential witches brew that Bivol will be dealing with for this fight. These are the other potential problems that could impact Bivol’s performance

  • Rehydration clause
  • Short training camp to prepare
  • Catchweight handicap

We’ll soon see whether Canelo will be requiring a rehydration clause for the Bivol fight, but you can argue that it’s a given.

The catchweight is still being ironed out, but it’s expected to be on the low side closer to 168 than the midpoint of 171.5 lbs.

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Team Bivol reportedly wants the September 18th date to be moved due to the extra work that Dmitry’ll require to get drop weight for the catchweight. Canelo will be the one that decides whether to push the fight back to October or November.

For Canelo, it’s a tough decision because the September 18th date falls on the Mexican Independence Day holiday weekend, and it’s important that he stays on that date.

If Canelo wanted to be fair, he could ask for a more moderate catchweight of 171.5 or 172, which would make it easier for Bivol to drop down to without being weakened.

It’s going to be tricky for Bivol to drain down to four to five pounds to the catchweight that Team Canelo asks for, but he’s obviously not going to reject the fight over this.

Image: Canelo Alvarez draining Dmitry Bivol, using catchweight

Will Canelo insist on a rehydration limit?

There’s too much money on the line for Bivol to walk away from the fight against the Mexican superstar over this relatively small thing.

What could be MUCH more difficult for Bivol is if Canelo demands a rehydration clause to limit how much the Russian fighter gains back after the weigh-in.

For example, if both fighters are limited to gaining back only 10 lbs after the weigh-in for a secondary weight check in the morning of the fight, it would impact Bivol more than Canelo because he’s a natural light heavyweight, albeit a smaller one.

The catchweight will be difficult enough for Bivol, 30, to handle, but when you throw in a strength-draining rehydration clause into the mix, it’ll likely weaken him enough for Canelo to win. It’s great to be the King.

Canelo, 31, won’t take any heat from the average boxing fan over the use of a couple of handicaps for the Bivol fight is because they won’t be aware of it.

If the catchweight and rehydration clause is mentioned during the Canelo-Bivol broadcast on September 18th, it’ll likely be briefly talked about the casual boxing fans will ignore it like it’s static in the background.

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It’s believed that the weight could be as low as 170 pounds, which will require the unbeaten WBA champion Bivol (18-0, 11 KOs) to come down from 175 possibly all the way down to as low as 170 lbs to defend his belt.

There’s no official word on whether Canelo will be insisting on a rehydration limit for the fight, but it’s expected that he will to keep Bivol from gaining back weight after the weigh-in the day before the fight.

“Update on @canelo: The Dmitry Bivol camp is waiting for confirmation from the four-division champion on a catch-weight bout between 168 and 175 pounds. “Might have to move the date for Bivol to have enough time to travel, acclimate and make weight,” Bivol side says,” said @Pugboxing.