By Sean Jones: Canelo Alvarez has finally revealed why the rematch with his conqueror Dmitry Bivol failed to happen after his embarrassingly one-sided decision last year.
Without giving the reason why the rematch didn’t come off, Canelo (59-2-2, 39 KOs) says he “tried” to make it happen, but Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs) started asking for things.
So instead of sticking it out to negotiate the fight with the talented WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol, Canelo faced the 41-year-old Gennadiy Golovkin and John Ryder in back-to-back fights.
Bivol reportedly wanted to move down to 168 from 175 to fight Canelo for his undisputed super middleweight championship because he wanted to prevent the Mexican star from blaming his defeat on him fighting outside of his natural weight class [168], which is one of the two excuses he used to explain away his defeat.
The other excuse Canelo had was a left wrist injury. But even after Canelo had surgery to fix the problem, he didn’t face Bivol in a rematch, which has cemented the view that boxing fans have about his wanting to avoid getting dominated a second time by the more technically skilled Bivol.
“I tried. I tried, but he started asking for things, making everything hard,” said Canelo about him supposedly trying to make the rematch with Bivol. “Then I thought the best option was to move [on] and start working with PBC. I’d like to have that rematch, but right now we can’t do that.”
It’s safe to say that Canelo will never rematch Bivol because he obviously knows that he lacks the skills to win that fight. It’s not so much the size that Canelo can’t deal with against Bivol.
It’s the skills. Canelo is a guy that is pretty much self-training, learning from watching different fighters and then aping them. Unfortunately, the guys that Canelo copied were fighters that excelled due to their hand speed or power, and he never learned the fundamentals of the game.
Canelo was one-dimensional with his offense against Bivol, loading up on single punches, not throwing combinations, and looking for a knockout with every punch. For his part, Bivol focused on throwing three-punch combinations and was lightning Canelo up like a Christmas tree.
During one sequence, Bivol hit Canelo with a seven-punch flurry in the fifth, with every shot connecting to the head of the Mexican star while he had his back to the ropes. Canelo looked wretched, motioning for Bivol to continue hitting him at will with shots as if he was enjoying getting punished by his master.
It was so embarrassingly easy for Bivol, and he could have finished Canelo in that round, but he showed mercy to his conquered foe by backing off. By that point in the fight, Bivol was toying with Canelo like a cat playing with a mouse before eating it.
Canelo will defend his undisputed super middleweight championship against Jermell Charlo on September 30th. If Canelo loses this fight, it’ll be interesting to hear what injury excuse he has this time.