By Sean Jones: Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn says the Canelo Alvarez vs. Dmitry Bivol rematch has several things that could prevent it from happening in 2023.
Hearn says Canelo’s fight with Gennadiy Golovkin in September and Bivol’s now WBA-ordered title defense against #1 Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez are two impediments to a Canelo-Bivol rematch next May in 2023.
This might not surprise critics of the Mexican superstar, as many of them felt that Canelo would NEVER rematch Bivol after the way he was outboxed and dominated by the talented WBA 175-lb champion in their fight on May 7th.
It is evident from watching Bivol beat the living daylights out of Canelo that any rematch would result in the same outcome, if not worse, for the former four-division world champion.
Canelo has had time to stew on his humiliating loss to Bivol, and it didn’t take him long to change his mind about rematching the highly skilled WBA 175-lb champion.
his fight with WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs) was a prime example of a “cherry-pick gone wrong.”
In other words, Canelo picked what some felt was the weakest link among the 175-lb champions in Bivol, and the plan blew up in the Mexican star’s face.
Initially, the superstar Canelo Alvarez (57-2-2, 39 KOs) had talked of wanting to fight Bivol in an immediate rematch after losing to him by a 12-round unanimous decision on May 7th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
While the judges on duty that night scored it close at 115-113 x 3, the reality was that Bivol appeared to win 11-1, and the only round you could give Canelo was the seventh when Dmitry took a temporary break from beating the stuffing out of the Mexican star.
“The fact is, to fight Canelo Alvarez, Bivol might have to fight Zurdo [Ramirez],” said Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn to The DAZN Boxing Show.
“That fight’s [Canelo vs. Bivol II] NOT a definite because we can’t just wait until May. It’s impossible, and there’s so much risk in those fights,” said Hearn.
So there it is. Hearn is already making it clear that the Canelo-Bivol 2 rematch is no longer a sure thing and might not happen. Sean Jones isn’t surprised because he never thought the rematch would occur.
For Canelo to keep the gravy train going with the money flowing in like oil from a Texas oil well, he can’t afford to get beaten again by Bivol. Hence, promoter Hearn has now deemed the Canelo-Bivol rematch an iffy thing.
It likely won’t be Canelo that will give the boxing world the bad news about the Bivol rematch. It’ll be Hearn that had the messy job of revealing to the fans Canelo won’t fight Bivol.
“Hopefully, Canelo and ‘GGG’ have a tremendous fight in September, and if Canelo wins, he’ll go and look for that rematch, but Bivol is going to be fighting too. Also, don’t forget, Bivol also wants the Beterbiev fight,” said Hearn, making it clear that the Canelo-Bivol 2 rematch might not happen.
