Canelo Alvarez will KO Artur Beterbiev says Tony Bellew

By Boxing News - 12/19/2021 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: Tony Bellew says he thinks Canelo Alvarez will KO unbeaten IBF/WBC light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev (17-0, 17 KOs) when he returns to the division that he previously held the WBO title.

According to former WBC cruiserweight champion Bellew, he’s seen the “warning signs” in the unbeaten Beterbiev’s past fights, noting the kinds of shots he’s been hurt with.

At this point, it’s still not sure that Canelo (57-1-2, 39 KOs) will ever fight Beterbiev because his trainer/manager Eddy Reynoso is doing his match-making for him and picking essentially easy targets.

It’s painfully apparent that Reynoso is selecting guys with NO chance of beating Canelo and thus ruining his status as the ‘Face of Boxing.’

Canelo is going after an EASY target

The former four-division world champion Alvarez will be moving up to cruiserweight next to challenge WBC champion Ilunga Makabu next May, as long as he still holds the title.

If Makabu loses his WBC cruiserweight title in his defense next month against Thabiso Mchunu, Canelo will likely face him.

There’s not much difference between Mchunu and Makabu regarding their talent or lack thereof.

Canelo hasn’t fought a dangerous opponent in which the outcome wasn’t a dead certainty for several years since his rematch with Gennady Golovkin in 2018.

Every bout since then for Canelo has been against flawed guys like Billy Joe Saunders, Caleb Plant, Avni Yildirim, and Rocky Fielding. It’s pretty clear with the way Reynoso is picking Canelo’s opposition that he’s going for the sure-thing wins every time.

The opposition Canelo SHOULD have fought since 2018:

  • Gennadiy Golovkin
  • David Benavidez
  • Demetrius Andrade
  • Jermall Charlo
  • David Morrell Jr
  • Artur Beterbiev
  • Dmitry Bivol
  • Joe Smith Jr.

“I think Canelo would stop Beterbiev. I’ve seen the warning signs there already. I’ve seen the shots that he can be hurt with,” said Tony Bellew to DAZN about him seeing punches that Beterbiev can be hurt with.

The only fighter that seemed to stun Beterbiev was the heavy-handed Callum Johnson in their fight in October 2017.

Image: Canelo Alvarez will KO Artur Beterbiev says Tony Bellew

In the Beterbiev-Callum contest, Johnson dropped Beterbiev in the second round when the two threw left hooks simultaneously. Johnson’s shot got there first, causing Beterbiev to stumble and fall.

However, Beterbiev wasn’t hurt by the shot and got up and pummeled Johnson for the remainder of the round at close range. Beterbiev knocked Johnson out in the fourth with a short right to the head.

Tony explains why Canelo will KO Beterbiev

“He did against [former WBO light heavyweight champion] Sergey Kovalev. If he did it with Kovalev, then I think he can with Beterbiev, but styles make fights,” said Bellew about Canelo being able to return to the 175-lb division to defeat IBF/WBC champion Beterbiev.

There’s a world of difference between the shot to pieces then 36-year-old Sergey Kovalev that Canelo defeated in 2019 compared to the unbeaten Beterbiev, who also is 36.

Beterbiev isn’t over-the-hill like Kovalev was, and he hasn’t been beaten twice by Andre Ward and knocked out by Eleider Alvarez like him.

Kovalev had lost three times in the three years before Canelo fought him in 2019, and he came close to being stopped by Anthony Yarde in his previous fight before facing the Mexican star.

This writer believes that Beterbiev would knockout Canelo with body shots if that fight were to happen in 2022. I don’t think it will happen because, as I said, Reynoso is choosing Canelo’s opposition, and he’s picking soft targets.

If Reynoso were interested in putting Canelo in risky fights, he wouldn’t have wasted the last three years of his career having him become the undisputed champion at 168.

Canelo beat three flawed European fighters from England and an American with no punching power in Caleb Plant. The only reason those guys were champions is that they beat fighters that had no business competing for world titles.