By Sean Jones: Anthony Yarde predicts Canelo Alvarez will lose his rematch with WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol in September when the two fight again.
Canelo’s wounded pride is the reason he wants the rematch with Bivol because he can’t live with memories of what happened him last year when he mixed it with the unbeaten 175-lb champion.
Alvarez is seemingly haunted by what happened to him, and it’s stuck in his craw. Rather than admitting to himself and the fans that he ran up against a more talented fighter in Bivol, Canelo insists on facing his master again, heading towards an almost certain loss.
Yarde says that “size matters” in boxing, and Canelo (59-2-2, 39 KOs), a fighter that began his career at 154, is too small to move up to 175 to challenge Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs) for his WBA belt.
It would be “detrimental” to the career of Canelo if he defended his undisputed super middleweight championship against Bivol and lost his four belts.
Those titles validate Canelo at this stage of his career because he hasn’t beaten a genuinely talented fighter in their prime since turning pro in 2004. Canelo’s best wins were controversial in nature against Gennadiy Golovkin in 2018, Austin Trout, and Erislandy Lara.
Bivol wants Canelo’s undisputed championship at 168 because those are the prize for him that would add to his legacy, and he’d like to scoop them up before returning to 175 to face IBF, WBC & WBO champion Artur Beterbiev for the undisputed battle in that weight class.
“If he fights Bivol at 168 and loses, that’s going to be detrimental to Canelo’s career,” said Anthony Yarde to Fight Hub TV about Canelo Alvarez in his rematch with Dmitry Bivol in September.
“That’s where all the prizes are [at 168]. He’s undisputed at that weight, so Bivol, of course, is going to say, ‘I’ll come to your weight. I’m going to try and clean up. I want to make history, too.'”
Canelo can’t move forward to fight the 168-lb monsters David Benavidez and David Morrell Jr until he avenges the loss to Bivol.
At this point, the boxing public wouldn’t hold it against Canelo if he chose to forget about fighting Bivol again and focused on the 168 & 160-lb weight classes. There are a lot of quality fighters in those divisions that the fans would like to see Canelo fight, and at least with them, he’d have a chance of winning.
“Canelo is saying, ‘Nah, nah, nah. I’ll come to light heavyweight,” said Yarde. “You beat me already, but it’s understandable. You’re much bigger than me. You’re a natural light heavyweight. I’m coming up from middleweight. Junior middleweight,’ that’s where Canelo started at.
“No one would bat an eye if Canelo just walked away. I think Canelo’s pride and his chase for the history books are why he’s going back up to light heavyweight to take on the challenge.”
Of course, fans wouldn’t mind of Canelo walked away from the Bivol rematch because virtually no one believes he’s capable of winning.
They saw the fight and noted how effortlessly Bivol beat Canelo. It was ridiculously easy for Bivol, who looked like he was in first gear the entire night.
The only time Bivol appeared to shift gears into second, third & fourth was in round five when he opened up with a seven-punch flurry that had Canelo within an eyelash of being stopped. Canelo’s head looked like it was on a swivel, with it getting whiplashed with each punch Bivol connected with.
“Can he pull it off? Against someone like Bivol, I don’t think so. I think Canelo is one of the best boxers in boxing, technically and everything, but size matters in boxing,” said Yarde.
