By Sean Jones: Canelo Alvarez’s manager/trainer Eddy Reynoso has confirmed that a September rematch with WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol is still his “priority” for him.
Reynoso recently met with David Benavidez’s manager Sampson Lewkowicz, which gave the boxing world the impression that he was planning on going in that direction for the undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo’s next fight in September.
Fans would prefer that Canelo fight his WBC mandatory Benavidez (27-0, 23 KOs) because they don’t think he can win or even be remotely competitive in the rematch with Bivol.
The skill level of Bivol is far better than Canelo, who still uses the Mayweather style that he learned from him in his loss. Canelo’s Mayweather-esque pot-shotting, one punch at a time, doesn’t work for a combination puncher like Bivol.
That boring junk style is only good against limited brawlers, not fighters that throw sustained combinations like Bivol.
Mayweather only used it because he got old and was fighting outside his natural weight class of super featherweight. Even then, Mayweaather was gifted a decision over combination puncher Marcos Maidana.
Canelo should have scraped the Mayweather style long ago to become a combination puncher. Still, Alvarez wasn’t forced to change with how he got favorable scoring in controversial decisions against Erislandy Lara, Gennadiy Golovkin, and Austin Trout.
So he stuck with the Mayweather junk pot-shotting style, and now it’s too late for him to change. Canelo has become an old dog that can’t learn new tricks. Also, his dreadfully poor cardio wouldn’t allow him to become a combination puncher in the Bivol model, even if he wanted to.
According to Salvador Rodriguez of ESPN Knockout, Reynoso and Lewkowicz’s meeting was based on them being “friends.”
“Yesterday, he made it clear to us CANELOTEAM that the priority for Canelo continues to be Dmitry Bivol at 175 or 168; that will be seen. The meeting with Sampson Boxing, he said, was with friends,” said Salvador Rodriguez on Twitter of ESPN Knockout.
That is to say, Canelo is still heading toward the rematch with Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs), who made him look bad, dominating him far more than Floyd Mayweather Jr had done nine years earlier in 2013.
It appears that the way that Bivol took Canelo to school in that fight has left an indelible impression on the Mexican star’s mind making him doggedly determined to try and avenge the loss.
Most boxing fans see Canelo’s wounded pride as his worst enemy, as he’s surely heading into a massacre far worse than their first fight last May. Bivol appeared to be taking it easy on the Mexican star and likely would have easily knocked him out when he unloaded on him in the fifth round.
Canelo looked wretched, getting bombarded by seven consecutive headshots in that round from Bivol. During that sequence, Canelo didn’t even attempt to throw anything back. How could he? Bivol was hitting him at will and perhaps marveling at how easy it was to beat the stuffing out of Canelo.
