By Sean Jones: Canelo Alvarez stepped in it this time in choosing his first live opponent in four years with him taking on WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol on May 7th.
Bivol is laughing at the many people that view the 31-year-old Canelo as untouchable, pointing out that he’s already been exposed by Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Gennadiy, both of which got the better of him.
What makes Bivol different than the deeply flawed belt holders that Canelo hand-picked in 2021 at super middleweight is his talent, and ability to fight. Bivol has power, movement, and can throw combinations.
Every part of Bivol’s game is like kryptonite to defeat a counterfeit champion that casuals & cheerleader hardcore boxing fans have built into being an untouchable fighter in their minds.
Casual boxing fans that have only slight surface-level knowledge of the sport believe this fight will be a slam dunk for Canelo (57-1-2, 39 KOs), basing their opinions on the Mexican star’s victories over belt holders that should have never been champions in the first place.
“Of course, he has good power and good skills, but most people think of him as untouchable or he’s unstoppable or he has enough power to beat super heavyweights,” WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol said to Fight Hub TV about Canelo Alvarez.
It’s going to be a shock for the casuals and the hardcore boxing fans that are more cheerleaders for Canelo than true fans that look at the sport in a scientific analytical way.
Yes, there will be tears from the fans when Canelo is beaten by Bivol, but that’s what happens when you build a fighter based on fantasy rather than reality.
Canelo has his management have done an excellent job of building up the warped view fans have about him, built on fights against these limited fighters:
- Caleb Plant – IBF 168-lb champion
- Billy Joe Saunders – WBO 168-lb champion
- Callum Smith – WBA 168-lb champion
- Rocky Fielding – WBA ‘regular’ 168-lb champion
- Sergey Kovalev – WBO 175-lb champion
- Daniel Jacobs – IBF 160-lb champion
For all intents and purposes, Canelo has been beating nothing but paper champions for the last four years since his bad experience against Golovkin in their rematch.
You can’t blame Canelo for wanting to go the easy route after his controversial win over GGG in 2018, considering it’s not easy for people to undertake tasks that they feel will be difficult, require backbreaking work, and could lead to failure.
If Canelo had fought the opposition that he should have fought, like Andrade, Benavidez, Golovkin [trilogy] & Beterbiev, he could have lost. So instead of taking the tough challenges, Canelo has taken the easy route, fighting weak belt holders and even old sparring partner Avni Yildirim.
Casual boxing fans likely view those fighters as elite, but that’s not the case. Basically, all of them were deeply flawed belt holders, who Canelo picked out for easy wins rather than take on the talented fighters.
If Canelo wanted to show he was the best, he would have fought these guys:
- Gennadiy Golovkin
- Demetrius Andrade
- Artur Beterbiev
- Dmitry Bivol
- David Morrell Jr
The reality is Canelo has been beaten many times already, but he’s fortunately repeatedly with favorable scoring in fights against Golovkin x 2, Miguel Cotto, Erislandy Lara, and Austin Trout.
Even against Mayweather, you had a judge scoring it a draw, showing how difficult it is to beat a superstar fighter, no matter how badly you dominate him.
“Sometimes it’s funny to hear about him from people,” said Bivol laughing at the fans that have built Canelo up in their heads in cartoon fashion, seeing things that have no basis in reality.
“First of all, he’s a good fighter, and he’s a man. He has a loss and a draw,” Bivol said in reminding the fans that Canelo couldn’t beat Mayweather Or Golovkin.
“If you believe in your skills and you’re a good boxer, you could give him one more loss.
“He had better speed and he had more boxing skills. Golovkin was more confident in their first fight, and I thought Golovkin should have won the first fight,” said Bivol.
It’s going to be a bitter pill for boxing fans to swallow when or if Bivol defeats Canelo on May 7th, particularly the people that were looking forward to seeing him fight Jermall Charlo and Golovkin.
