Dmitry Bivol 100% focused on beating Canelo Alvarez

By Boxing News - 03/24/2022 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: Dmitry Bivol has his mind 100% focused on beating Canelo Alvarez on May 7th. The unbeaten WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs) says he could care less that Canelo has already set up a fight beyond their May 7th matchup against Gennadiy Golovkin on September 17th.

What’s important to Bivol is not to be distracted by feelings of bitterness about Canelo planning September and December fights.

Bivol, 31, just wants to prepare the best that he can so that he feels he can perform well enough to feel good about himself afterward.

Canelo (57-1-2, 39 KOs) and Bivol will be fighting on DAZN pay-per-view on May 7th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is the first part of a two-fight, $100 million+ deal for Canelo with Matchroom Boxing & DAZN.

If Bivol beats Canelo, he’ll be causing a lot of problems for him in terms of his second fight of the deal against Golovkin. If Canelo loses to Bivol, he’ll likely need/want to fight him in an immediate rematch rather than moving forward to face Golovkin.

The only way that Canelo might choose not to take the rematch is if Bivol beats him in the same one-sided manner that he did Joe Smith Jr, Jean Pascal, and Sullivan Barrera. Those were all one-sided fights with Bivol beating them soundly.

“To me, it doesn’t matter. The main thing is we will fight on May 7th,” said Dmitry Bivol to Fighthype when asked if he feels disrespected because of the Gennadiy Golovkin fight is already negotiated for Canelo on September 17th.

Image: Dmitry Bivol 100% focused on beating Canelo Alvarez

“It doesn’t bother me because I have a chance,” said Bivol. “I have an opponent who is going to fight me. This is what I have to think about. This makes me happy. This opportunity for me. I don’t think about the judges,” said Bivol.

Well, right now, Bivol says he doesn’t care about the judges, but he might feel otherwise if he loses to Canelo by a controversial decision. That would be a different story.

“Canelo was better on the second fight,” said Bivol about the Mexican star’s two fights with Gennadiy Golovkin. “He’s getting better, of course,” Bivol said about Canelo improving since his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013.

“I want to prepare my good sides and see him in the ring and fight him,” said Bivol.

The way to beat Canelo is for Bivol to focus on boxing him, and not going out looking to slug because that would leave him open to being countered.

Bivol has a pretty good chin, though, but it’ll be hard for him to take Canelo’s counter shots all night.

“Camp is going well. I have good sparring partners, a good place, and my team with me. Everything is good,” said Bivol to Little Giant Boxing.

“I just realize what I’ll do in the ring to be a winner, but I don’t think about what it’ll be like when they raise my hand. I just think about only the fight.

“It doesn’t matter what will be after the fight. The main thing is what will be in the fight,” said Bivol in making it clear that he’s dialed in for the fight.

“Every fighter is different. When a fight against someone, it’s a surprise,” said Bivol. “You can expect something but every time in the ring, it’s something different.

“Once I get in the ring, it’s always a new fight. I don’t think about other fighters, another fight, another belt. I have my date on May 7th. I’m only thinking about May 7th and only on my opponent.

“It’s not professional to think about everything. You should think about your deal,” said Bivol.

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