By Sean Jones: Ricky Hatton says Canelo Alvarez didn’t sustain a bad beating from Dmitry Bivol last weekend, so he expects him to take the immediate rematch believing he can change some things for the better.
Hatton is right about Canelo not taking a lot of punishment in his one-sided loss to Bivol last weekend. But the fight was so conclusive that one could tell with near certainty that Bivol would beat Canelo ten out of ten times.
“The decision on the night was not in doubt, but Canelo wasn’t overpowered in there either, he didn’t take any heavy shots, so I think he will be desperate to put that right in a rematch,” Hatton said to the Metro about Canelo Alvarez’s loss to Dmitry Bivol.
Indeed, no matter how many times Canelo fights the talented WBA 175-lb champion, he’ll lose unless he gets the same oddball scoring that we saw in his two fights against Gennadiy Golovkin and to a certain extent, last Saturday night.
“He has cleaned up below at super-middleweight; there are no more challenges left for him there. If Canelo is the fighter I believe him to be, he will want to do it again,” said Hatton.
There are many boxing fans that would disagree with Hatton 100% about his belief about there being “no more challenges” remaining for Canelo at 168.
If Hatton follows the sport closely, he’d know that David Benavidez and Demetrius Andrade are two very BIG challenges at super middleweight that Canelo has conveniently ignored.
Canelo basically swerved the #1 fighter in the 168-lb division by choosing not to fight Benavidez, and instead focusing on the weak belt holders, Callum Smith, Billy Joe Saunders, Caleb Plant, and Rocky Fielding.
As such, Canelo does have two excellent fighters at 168 for him to fight if he chooses to return to the division right away or after he fights Bivol again. If Canelo is smart, he’ll forget about fighting Bivol again and acknowledge to him and the fans that he’s not talented enough to
“I’m sure he thinks there are things he can do differently, and he will certainly want another charge at that light-heavyweight title. He will think in the back of his mind he will get the beating of him.”
You can’t blame Canelo if he’s going to try and avenge his loss to Bivol because that would be admirable on his part if he makes that move.
As far as Canelo doing anything differently in the rematch, it’s hard to say what he can change from the first fight.
Canelo has always had poor stamina, and that’s not going to improve enough in the rematch enough for him to win a decision.
The 5’7 1/2″ Canelo lacks the height & reach to box Bivol from the outside, and he doesn’t hit hard enough for the 175-lb division to knock him out.
If Canelo possessed a high work rate of 80 to 110 punches thrown per round, he’d have a shot at knocking out Bivol. He can’t do it through.
