By Craig Daly: Canelo Alvarez will need to raise his game considerably for the rematch with Dmitry Bivol to keep from going down to a second defeat against the WBA light heavyweight champion in September.
We still don’t know if Canelo will chance it by using his rematch clause to give it another try against Bivol, and there are already a massive amount of his loyal fans that are advising him against doing so, including his promoter Eddie Hearn.
Canelo (57-2-2, 39 KOs) couldn’t overcome the size, technical, conditioning, and discipline of Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs in their fight on May 7th.
What many thought would be a clear victory for Canelo turned into a rout for Bivol, who boxed his head off for a 12-round unanimous decision at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
All the lazy habits that Canelo had picked up over the last three years against marginal opposition, Bivol took advantage over.
Canelo couldn’t get away with not using his jab, loading up on single punches, and only throwing a small number of shots in each round.
Canelo lacked the energy
“I always thought Bivol would be a challenge. I never back against Alvarez because he’s such a great fighter, and an all-time great in my eyes,” said Adam Booth to iFL TV.
“The size, ability, freshness, and magnificent discipline of Bivol’s performance was just too much for him,” Booth continued about Canelo.
“When you are the naturally smaller man in a fight and remember, Canelo’s a super welterweight to start with. When you’re a naturally smaller fighter, you have to use and exert that much more energy just to make it a level playing field. That showed out in the fight,” said Booth.
If Canelo can’t make improvements in his conditioning to fight for a full three minutes of each round, he shouldn’t bother activating the rematch clause to fight Bivol again.
“I scored it 116-112. I had it eight rounds to four,” said Booth. “The rounds that Canelo won were a lot closer than the ones that Bivol won. I think three of those rounds were close from what I remember,” Booth about the first four rounds, which all three judges surprisingly gave to Canelo 4-0,” Booth said.
The judges got it right
“It’s academic; the right man got the decision, and how I scored it was 8-4,” said Booth. There’s always going to be massive interest in Canelo Alvarez’s fights,” said Booth when asked whether there will be massive interest in a Canelo vs. Bivol 2 rematch.
“What’s good about the rematch if they make it is that Dmitry Bivol has proven he belongs there, but I also think Bivol will be better in the rematch. So Alvarez will need to raise his game more than he needed for the fight just gone.
“Probably Golovkin III first, but I just love watching Canelo,” Booth said when asked if he’d rather see the trilogy match between Canelo and Gennadiy Golovkin or a Canelo-Bivol rematch.
