By Dan Ambrose: Dmitry Bivol looks like he will be pure trouble for Canelo Alvarez in the rematch in September unless the Mexican star makes huge improvements in his game before then.
In training footage of the unbeaten WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs), he can throw sustained combinations while moving forward and backing up without stopping his shots.
You don’t see a lot of fighters in the sport that can continue their combinations while backing up in one sustained flow without halting their shots.
Canelo hints that he plans to use volume punching to win the Bivol rematch, which will be difficult for him to do without being a stationary target. Eddy Reynoso, the trainer for Canelo, says they will be using a lot of counter-punching against Bivol.
That’s been Canelo’s bread & butter during his career, but Bivol showed in the first fight that he was adept at blocking those punches on his arms and then firing back.
Bivol’s footwork looks terrific right now with how he moves forwards, backward & side to side while firing off rapid combination shots. The double & triple left hook he throws will give Canelo massive problems in September if this fight happens.
For Canelo, this means that if he attempts to attack Bivol while he’s retreating, he will get hit repeatedly as he moves forward.
As most boxing fans know, Canelo’s footwork is slow and cumbersome at best, and he’s poor at moving around the ring. Hence, he was dominated by Bivol last May and soundly beaten by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013.
John Ryder will face Canelo (58-2-2, 39 KOs) for his undisputed super middleweight championship on May 6th in Guadalajara, Mexico. This is a glorified tune-up fight for Canelo, but some boxing fans view it as a confidence-builder for the superstar after the bad year he had in 2022, losing to Bivol and almost getting beaten by a faded 40-year-old Gennadiy Golovkin.
Canelo knows how to beat Bivol
“Surprise, mother f***er. I know what I need for that fight,” said Canelo Alvarez to the media when asked if he’ll use volume punching to defeat Dmitry Bivol like he did against Gennadiy Golovkin in the second fight. “I wasn’t at my best.”
“Well, Bivol, a lot of physical conditioning and counterpunching him a lot,” said Canelo’s trainer/manager Eddy Reynoso to Fino Boxing when asked how Saul will defeat Bivol in the rematch in September.
“Until now, he doesn’t know how to beat him,” Reynoso said of Canelo. “We’ll find a way to get to good conditioning. I think it’s a fight that can be one.
