By Jim Calfa: Teofimo Lopez believes Dmitry Bivol’s (19-0, 11 KOs) fighting style is “made” for Canelo Alvarez. He feels confident the star will come out victorious on May 7th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Teofimo isn’t entirely ruling out the possibility of Bivol winning, though, as he feels got an excellent left-right combination that he throws that could give Canelo issues if he’s able to land it.
Canelo is stepping into the unknown against Bivol because you can’t count the Mexican star’s prior experience at 175 against an over-the-hill Sergey Kovalev.
That fight was odd with Kovalev, the bigger & stronger fighter, running around the ring trying to avoid Canelo. It looked almost comical, a knockout artist running from his smaller, weaker opponent Canelo.
Bivol won’t run from Canelo, and he’s going to give him a lot more resistance than the ragtag bunch of 168-lb champions he beat last year.
Teo believes that Canelo CAN’T be beaten by Bivol, David Benavidez, or Artur Beterbiev. He feels that Canelo can only be beaten by himself.
Canelo uses a lot of head and upper body movement to avoid headshots, but Bivol mixes his shots up well, aiming punches downstairs.
If Bivol targets Canelo’s massive upper body, he will find it a lot easier to connect. We’ll see if Canelo can handle getting hit to the body because he rarely shots downstairs.
It’s a difficult fight to predict because Bivol is a more complicated fighter than the fighters that Canelo has been fighting lately, many of them coming from England.
The former unified lightweight champion Teofimo says Canelo (57-1-2, 39 KOs) will “pick” WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol apart on May 7th, and he doesn’t view it as a fight that the Mexican star has anything to worry about.
Bivol “made for Canelo” says Teo
“I think a lot of people are overlooking Bivol. He’s got a nasty one-two,‘ said Teofimo Lopez to Fight Hub TV about the Canelo Alvarez vs. Dmitry Bivol bout next month. tailormade
“I’m not going to say he’s going to connect with him, but it probably is nothing new for him. I think it’s a great fight. I do see Canelo out-landing him and outboxing him.
“Bivol, from the fights I’ve seen him, he’s very solid, very tight, and Canelo likes guys like that.
“He can pick them off. He can really pick them off. He did that with Callum Smith, even though Callum was tall. He was boxed up like this to the point where Canelo went around and brought him down.
“So, it’s all about how they box. It’s a fight made for Canelo. I’m not saying it’s fixed, but it’s a great fight. It favors him because of his style. A lot of people think all these fights are fixed, but it’s not, but it’s just because of the styles,” said Teofimo.
It sounds like Teofimo isn’t overly familiar with Bivol’s fighting style because he seems to think he fights in a similar way as Callum Smith, who is a stationary fighter that covers up on the ropes when attacked.
Bivol doesn’t shell up like Callum, and he never fights off the ropes. Teofimo’s description of Bivol would mean a little more if he were familiar with his fighting style, but he’s confused.
Lopez won’t be surprised if Bivol wins
“It wouldn’t surprise me because this guy is a little tricky, a little awkward,” said Teofimo when asked if he’d be surprised if Bivol beat Canelo.
“What happens with awkward fighters is it throws a lot of the stylistic fighters off from the Mayweathers all the way to the Canelos.
“Floyd was never good with awkward fighters. He maintained it, but he was never good with awkward fighters. [Marcos] Maidana was the main example of what an awkward fighter is.
“It’s a great fight. I like it, and great for Canelo having two fights already scheduled and contracted. As long as he beats this one and Golovkin, it’s going to be great.
Teofimo convinced Canelo beats Benavidez & Beterbiev
“Canelo,” said Teofimo when asked who could beat Canelo. “Nah, Canelo, I’ll be honest,” said Teo in rejecting the idea of David Benavidez or Artur Beterbiev being the ones that beat Canelo.
“Canelo is the only person now that can beat himself. He’s at the point where mentally where he knows he’s the s***, but he keeps it humble to where he keeps that grind. That’s a dangerous fighter because that’s how Floyd was.
“So, he’s at that stage where his mindset is like that, and he’s looking to do bigger and better things. With somebody like that, you can’t stop them. He has a plan.
“These guys are trying to be famous and rich. He has a plan to make history. It’s a big difference in the state of mind,” Teofimo said of Canelo trying to build his legacy by collecting world titles.
Teofimo says Golovkin is “slowing down”
“We got to see that. That’s the only way we can tell,” said Teofimo about whether Gennady Golovkin can beat Canelo Alvarez on September 17th.
“I’m not saying Murata is going to do anything different than Canelo is going to do. We got to see how he looks because he does look like he’s slowing down,” Teofimo said about Golovkin.
“It’s catching up to him. I think I seen it in his last fight,” said Teofimo about Gennadiy.
IBF middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) is fighting next Saturday, April 9th, against WBA 160lb champion Ryota Murata (16-2, 13 KOs).
If Golovkin loses the fight, any chance of a trilogy match between him and Canelo will be out the window.
It’s difficult to know whether Golovkin will beat Murata because he’s 40 and has fought only three times in the last four years. Canelo probably could care less if Golovkin loses the fight because he’ll likely defend his WBA 168-lb title against his mandatory John Ryder in England.
That would be a slam dunk victory for Canelo, which would pay him a ton of money.
