Via Sean Jones: Tony Bellew believes Canelo Alvarez would have beaten WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol if he had entered the Class A bout last May.
It looks like Canelo has been fighting at the same level as he did in 2021.
As far as Sean Jones is concerned, the former four-time world champion Canelo looks like he did facing Bivol last year when he beat 168-lb champions Billy Joe Saunders, Caleb Plant and Callum Smith to become the winner. undisputed super middleweight champion. .
Bellew felt that Canelo (57-2-2, 39 KOs) was not at his best when he challenged the undefeated 175-lb champion Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs), and the result was a match. decided to lose 12 innings.
Interestingly, Canelo turned down the opportunity to try and avenge the loss to Bivol by forcing an immediate rematch.
Instead of Canelo testing Bellew’s theory about it being an early night by fighting Bivol again, he took the easier route by facing 40-year-old Gennadiy Golovkin on May 17. 9. Eddie Hearn says Canelo has to fight Golovkin now because it’s the perfect time.
Despite Canelo’s rather bland loss, Bellew believes he still deserves to rank high on the balanced list.
Many will take issue with Canelo, 32, still in the top 5 after that performance because he looks so technically superior to Bivol.
The way Canelo discharges is another tricky aspect of his game, as he looks poorly trained. Of course, Canelo has had fitness issues since he turned pro in 2005, but this is worse than ever.
“Must do better; some would say those are the matches he is making. Want to set such high standards? You have to maintain it and be there. He’s amazing; he’s still there pound-for-pound“Tony Bellew said to Boxing DAZN Show about Canelo Alvarez.
“People took him off the pound when he lost to Bivol. Absolutely not; He’s still there for me,” Bellew said. “But there are some things he has to do better.”
I don’t think it makes sense for Canelo to rank higher than Bivol on Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound list. After Canelo’s loss, he was ranked #5, while Bivol, his conqueror, was ranked #7.
“If he was in the ‘A’ game that night, he would play against Bivol. I think he beat him. He’s not in his ‘A’ game, so he has to do better,” Bellew said of Canelo.
Bellew may not have realized that Canelo had an A-grade match against Bivol, but his best ability wasn’t good enough in this case.
We are talking about a boxer who is considered a long-term counterweight in his career, and it was only last year that Canelo changed his style and began to take down opponents.
With the change of style, Canelo only throws single punches and has not shown the ability to throw combined. That’s why he was knocked down by Bivol, who was knocking him down with three to seven consecutive punches.
