By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Joel Diaz says fans are going to see some unexpected surprises when Canelo Alvarez goes up in weight to take on the highly technical WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol on May 7th on DAZN PPV.
Diaz has been watching Bivol train at his gym, and he’s mighty impressed with what he’s seen of the WBA champion. He says shakes the entire gym when he hits the heavy bags, and he’s in awe of what he’s seen of the young 31-year-old.
The former four-division world champion Canelo is coming into the fight with Bivol off the back of his success at 168, becoming the undisputed champion last November.
However, the champions Canelo defeated to capture all four titles at 168 left a lot to be desired, a beating a weak group of fighters that arguably couldn’t hold a candle to the talent that Bivol has shown at 175.
Canelo’s victories at 168:
Caleb Plant
Billy Joe Saunders
Rocky Fielding
Callum Smith
Avni Yildirim – *ex-sparring partner
The 31-year-old Canelo (57-1-2, 39 KOs) may have opened himself up a can of whoop a** in handpicking the undefeated Russian Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs) for his next fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“If you look at one of Bivol’s fights, and you think, ‘He didn’t look that great.’ Let me tell you why. I’ve seen him with some of my fighters in the past,” said trainer Joel Diaz to Fight Hub TV about Dmitry Bivol.
“When you fight an average fighter, you drop to their level, but when they give you that competitive edge, you step up to the opposition. Bivol is one of those fighters that step up to the opposition, and that’s Canelo Alvarez.
“You’re going to see a totally different Bivol that steps in the ring with Canelo than you did when he fought [Craig Richards & Umar Salamov] the previous fighters because I saw it with Tim Bradley when he fought Manny Pacquiao. He stepped it up.
“It with every fighter, every boxer. If you give them a good name, they’ll step up that level, and that’s the reason why you’re going to see a fight [Bivol vs. Canelo] where you’re going to see the unexpected on May 7th.
“You’re going to see a great fight. Honestly, I’m looking forward to it because you’re going to be seeing a great competitive fight from beginning to end. When that guy [Bivol] hits the bag, he moves the whole gym.
“If Bivol wins the fight, it’s going to be because of the science because he’s a really good technical boxer,” said Teddy Atlas on The Fight Game With Teddy Atlas in giving his thoughts on Bivol’s title defense against Canelo.
“Bivol has a great chance of winning the fight,” said Roy Jones Jr. to Fighthype. “If Canelo smothers him, it’ll make it hard for Bivol.”
It’s not going to be easy for Canelo to try & smother Bivol on the inside because he’s not going to stand in one place and let him.
