By Sean Jones: Oscar De La Hoya says Canelo Alvarez’s loss to Dmitry Bivol last year took a lot out of him, and his recent listless effort against John Ryder confirmed his suspicions about the Mexican star.
WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs) battered Canelo (59-2-2, 39 KOs) all night, hitting him with repeated combinations to the head during their clash in May 2022.
De La Hoya feels that what we saw of Canelo forced to labor against an ordinary-looking Ryder was a sign that he now has a lot of “wear & tear” on him, which will only get worse if he chooses to take the rematch with the more talented Bivol, who is roughly the same age but is fighting at a much higher level now.
If Canelo doesn’t fight Bivol, the boxing world will want him to fight David Benavidez, and that’s a match-up that he doesn’t look capable of winning at this stage of his career.
The fans aren’t going to put up with another Ryder-level opponent brought in for Canelo to fight because he’s spent the better part of the last five years padding his record against beatable guys instead of facing the cream of the crop.
Canelo Alvarez = is an old 33
“I’ve always said that he’s on the decline, especially after the Bivol loss because it takes a lot out of you,” said Oscar De La Hoya to K.O. Artist Sports about Canelo Alvarez not looking the same after his defeat against WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol last year.
“This reconfirmed my thought process,” De La Hoya said about Canelo’s dreadful performance against John Ryder. “It reconfirmed the fact that Canelo, not that he’s getting old because he’s young, but he’s an old 33 for boxing.
“He’s had a lot of wear & tear. He started fighting at 15 years old. I just felt that he should have taken out John Ryder. You dropped him and had him hurt. His body language was really not there, and Canelo should have thrown a barrage of punches and stopped him.
“Fighting in that 18 x 18 ring, it was your advantage. He couldn’t move with his legs. His legs were slow. Those are signs from fighter to fighter of slowing down of wear & tear. There’s nothing wrong with it. That’s how life goes.
“His career has been an amazing career. We’ve built something for him that is going to go down in history, and there’s no shame in it. Canelo’s performance obviously wasn’t what people expected,” said De La Hoya.
