By Jack Tiernan: Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn says he’s working on the Canelo Alvarez vs. Dmitry Bivol rematch for early next year on the Cinco de Mayo holiday in May 2023.
It wouldn’t have been a good idea for Canelo to fight the rematch with Bivol, 31, this year because he needs a lot of work to fix the holes in his game that the talented WBA 175-lb champion exposed in his victory.
The most logical reason to move the Bivol fight to 2023 is that Canelo can’t afford to lose back-to-back fights against him. If that were to happen, Canelo’s career would effectively be a dumpster fire, and Hearn wouldn’t be able to put it out without making it worse.
Hearn insists Canelo (57-2-2, 39 KOs) is planning on rematching WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs), but he’s got a couple of other fights he’ll be taking this year before then.
Canelo will be fighting Gennadiy Golovkin in a rematch in September on DAZN pay-per-view in a trilogy bout.
If Golovkin was still firing on all eight cylinders and young, Canelo could afford to wait until next year to fight him. At 40, Golovkin is too advanced in his years for Canelo to put off the trilogy match any longer.
“We spoke to Bivol and his team; we’re working on the rematch for Cinco De Mayo next year. There’s no way he [Canelo] won’t take that fight,” said Eddie Hearn to DAZN Boxing Show.
Hopefully, Canelo won’t lose too many fans for choosing not to try and avenge his loss to Bivol this year. Many people won’t relate to Canelo delaying the rematch with Bivol because that’s not something they would do if they were in the same boat.
Canelo is fighting in December, but that’s expected to be an easier fight for him to fight in the UK or Mexico. Hearn would like for Canelo to fight in the UK against John Ryder, his WBA 168-lb mandatory.
Bivol beat Canelo by a 12-round unanimous decision a couple of weeks ago on May 7th in Las Vegas in a fight shown on DAZN PPV. Hearn says the contest brought in superior numbers on pay-per-view.
With Canelo choosing not to fight Bivol again until 2023, it’ll let Dmitry move in the direction of fighting for the undisputed light heavyweight championship against the winner of the June 18th fight between Artur Beterbiev and Joe Smith Jr.
If Bivol can become the undisputed champion this year, his rematch with Canelo will be much more prominent in May 2023. Canelo would have the chance to become a two-division undisputed champion.
