By Sam Volz: Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero wasn’t surprised at learning that Canelo Alvarez has chosen to fight 40-year-old Gennadiy Golovkin next on September 17th rather than facing Dmitry Bivol in a rematch after losing to him in a one-sided manner.
Rolly points out in his usual matter-of-fact way that Canelo (57-2-2, 39 KOs) got his backside whipped by the unbeaten WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs) on May 7th, but he still feels that the Mexican star is a great fighter.
Unfortunately, the reality is that the myth of Canelo being an invincible fighter that could glide through opposition regardless of what weight class they fight in has been shattered forever by his defeat against Bivol.
It was such total domination by Bivol that it’ll be impossible ever to view Canelo in the same light again.
“Canelo doesn’t want to fight Bivol. That’s that,” said Rolly Romero reacting to being told that Canelo Alvarez has chosen to fight 40-year-old Gennadiy Golovkin over the rematch with Dmitry Bivol.
What made the defeat even worse was Canelo’s decision to delay the rematch with Bivol until next year in May 2023 and instead to fight the played-out 40-year-old Golovkin in September.
When you’re pound-for-pound #1 and viewed as the ‘Face of Boxing,’ you’ve got to try and run it back when you lose in the way Canelo did against Bivol. For him to choose NOT to fight Bivol in an immediate rematch suggests to many boxing fans that he’s afraid & mentally beaten.
Choosing to fight Golovkin could turn around and bite Canelo on the backside because he’s not going to be confident for that fight, given what just transpired against Bivol.
Golovkin will use everything that he saw from Bivol to try and soundly beat Canelo on September 17th.
As long as the judging is fair, Golovkin can beat Canelo if he uses the Bivol blueprint. Whether Golovkin can move around the ring and throw combinations the way Bivol did is uncertain. Still, if he can do a halfway decent job following that blueprint, he’s got a pretty good shot at defeating Canelo.
“Canelo is still a tremendous fighter, but he got his a** beat by Bivol, and Bivol is a real champ,” Rolly said. “That fight just shows that I thought Canelo was going to win.
“I bet everyone in this room thought Canelo was going to win. This is the biggest upset this year so far,” said Rolly.
It’s painfully evident that Canelo got his backside beat, and it looks so bad that he’s decided not to run it back against Bivol.
If the shoe was on the other foot and Bivol had just lost, would he decide against taking the immediate rematch with Canelo? I think not. You can argue that Bivol is cut from a different set of cloth than Canelo.
