By Dan Ambrose: Canelo Alvarez is in negotiations for a rematch with WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol in September.
Promoter Eddie Hearn says the negotiations are ongoing, but he doesn’t believe Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs) is pricing himself out. Hearn failed to mention the plan B option for Canelo if negotiations with Bivol don’t pan out. The newly signed Matchroom fighter Edgar Berlanga is now believed to be the Mexican star’s next opponent.
Berlanga (20-0, 16 KOs) is a fighter with a glittery record, filled with primarily sub-level opposition and a massive following in New York. Those were things that attracted Hearn to sign the 26-year-old Berlanga. Soon after signing him, Hearn said he wanted to match him against Canelo.
The Canelo-Berlanga clash was initially thought to wait until the first quarter 2024. Still, it may be advanced to September if the Bivol negotiations fall apart.
Bivol wants a better deal than the one for the first fight. He also wants the chance to battle for Canelo’s undisputed super middleweight championship.
“It’s not even a case of [Dmitry] pricing himself out; he just feels that he has a certain value in the fight, and at the moment, we’re not there,” Hearn said to talkSPORT.
Bivol’s manager said recently that he didn’t believe that Canelo (59-2-2, 39 KOs) was serious about making the rematch because he’s offering the same terms as their bout a year ago, which he lost.
Canelo treats the rematch as if he didn’t lose to Bivol last year in a far more one-sided fight than the judges’ scores.
The Canelo-Bivol fight was staged at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the same venue as Canelo’s controversial first two fights against Gennadiy Golovkin.
Considering that Canelo hasn’t fought at 175 since his loss to Bivol, he doesn’t deserve to be given a do-over for his WBA light heavyweight title. He hasn’t earned it. That being the case, it’s only fair that the rematch takes place at 168, with all four of Canelo’s titles on the line.
Bivol didn’t like how Canelo used the weight of his loss to Bivol to deflect criticism from the boxing public. Instead of owning the loss and admitting that Bivol was the superior technical fighter with more skills and ability, Canelo used the 175-lb weight as an excuse.
He also said he’d been fighting with an injured left hand. It was wretched to see Canelo stooping to the level of blaming his loss to Bivol on the weight and a hand injury, but the fact that he did that gave a lot of insight into his character.
