By Allan Fox: Canelo Alvarez says his defeat last Saturday night at the hands of IBF light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol didn’t compare to his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013.
Unlike in his schooling against Floyd, Canelo (57-2-2, 39 KOs) feels that he fought well enough to win seven rounds against Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs); he’s proud and believes he did enough to deserve the victory.
The judges scored it close, giving the undefeated 31-year-old Bivol a narrow win by these scores: 115-113, 115-113, and 115-113.
Interestingly, all three judges had Canelo up 4-0 after four rounds, but they only gave him one additional round in giving him the ninth.
With Canelo believing he deserved the victory, he didn’t agree with how the judges scored the fight, but neither did the fans.
Most would agree that the movement of Bivol gave Canelo fits, and he lacked the conditioning & foot speed to get to the Russian fighter. To be sure, Canelo appeared very, very tired after the second round.
He had said that he wanted to start fast against Bivol, but the exertion that it took for Canelo to follow that plan was too much for his body to handle.
In Canelo’s fights with Gennady Golovkin, he gassed out in the second half of the contest and gave away rounds. However, against Bivol, Canelo faded much earlier and was fighting on fumes from the third round.
Canelo doesn’t feel crushed by defeat
“We’re going to go and see what’s next, talk about it and let you know,” said Canelo Alvarez at the post-fight press conference last Saturday night when asked if he might reconsider taking the immediate rematch with Dmitry Bivol.
“I don’t feel that way. I feel like I’m coming out of this fight with my head held high because I gave the best of me in a different weight class,” Canelo said when asked if his loss to Bivol hurt mentally as much as his defeat against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013.
“It could be,” said Canelo when asked if his rivalry with Bivol could define his career.
Bivol ruins Canelo’s trilogy plans
“He had a good ninth, and then Bivol came back and won the tenth, eleventh, and [twelfth],” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV about Canelo falling apart in the championship rounds.
“He [Bivol] fully deserved to win the fight, and a new star in boxing is born. Obviously, I have a closer relationship with Canelo than I do with Dmitry Bivol.
“I respect Bivol and his manager Vadim. I delivered him the opportunity, and he came up with the goods,” said Hearn in reacting to being told that Bivol apologized for messing up the trilogy fight between Canelo and Gennadiy Golovkin for September.
“Gennadiy Golovkin is sitting there tonight, not believing what just happened, and now we look to the [Canelo vs. Bivol] rematch with September,” said Hearn.
