By Brian Webber: Canelo Alvarez says he’ll be ready to begin discussions for a rematch with Dmitry Bivol after defeating Gennadiy Golovkin on September 17th.
Canelo had hoped to fight WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol in an immediate rematch after losing to him by a narrow 12-round unanimous decision last May, but this was the only time to get the fight out of the way against Golovkin.
With Golovkin’s aging and the close calls against Ryota Murata and Sergiy Derevyanchenko, Canelo needed to get the trilogy out of the way in September rather than chance it and put it off until 2023.
Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn felt Canelo needed to take the fight with Golovkin this year. It wasn’t just the possibility of Golovkin getting beaten by someone if they’d delayed the trilogy until next year.
It was that so much time had already gone by since their previous match in 2018 that it would have been a mistake to wait another year and have fans lose interest.
“I always learn from a win and especially from a loss. I’m the type of person that tries to get better and better,” said Canelo Alvarez when asked if he learned anything from his loss to Dmitry Bivol.
The biggest mistake Canelo made in losing Bivol was loading up on everything he threw and trying to knock him out with single shots instead of throwing combinations.
If Canelo had taken some power off his punches and focused on throwing combos, he would have stood a better chance of winning.
“I just watched that fight two times, and but I just got tired,” said Canelo about his loss to Bivol. “I tried to do something, but my body wouldn’t respond. I need to move forward, win this fight [with Golovkin] first, and then we can talk about that,” said Canelo about the rematch with Bivol.
“Of course, nobody likes to lose. I told Eddie [Hearn] after the fight, ‘I want the rematch with Bivol in September.’ Now, I have to fight with Golovkin. I’ll fight with Golovkin, and then we can see.
“I don’t know when, I don’t know where, but I want that fight for sure,” said Canelo about his desire to face Bivol again.
“I think it’s down to Eddy [Reynoso] and Saul,” said Eddie Hearn when asked who he wanted Canelo to fight. “This is the time to make this trilogy. It’s the only time really, and we already had a time to do this.
“I think Saul’s reaction was, ‘I want a rematch, I want a rematch [with Bivol].’ Any fighter would want to do that, but to drop and take the undisputed fight and the trilogy, I think, is the right thing to do.
“If they [Team Canelo] want to take the rematch next May [with Bivol] or whatever they want it, I’m sure Bivol would accept that challenge as well,” said Hearn.
