Via Huck Allen: Canelo Alvarez said he will start quickly with Dmitry Bivol this Saturday because the WBA lightweight champion is in great fitness.
Canelo (57-1-2, 39 KOs) will have a major obstacle to this fight against the larger, stronger Bivol being his anemic working rate. Canelo is a counter puncher who never had a high job rate even when he was young.
Now Canelo 5’7 1/2 is in his 30s and fights in a weight class above his heaviest of 154 lbs, his punch output has decreased significantly compared to nothing.
It will be impossible for Canelo to beat Bivol next if he only throws 15 to 20 punches per round unless the referees focus on who can make the harder shots.
In Canelo’s only fight at 175 against Sergey Kovalev in 2019, he fell behind immediately and was eliminated by the descender, edging out his best 36-year-old WBO lightweight champion.
Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs) was a much better boxer than Kovalev back then, and he is also said to be far ahead of the middleweight champions Canelo has beaten over the past two years to become the undisputed champion.
Canelo starts early
“With Bivol, I need to start early in the fight because he has the stamina for 12 rounds,” Canelo told Matchroom Boxing.
Canelo will need to put in more punches and not get too caught up in using the high defensive play we saw from Oscar Valdez in the loss to Shakur Stevenson.
“For me, he’s the best,” Canelo said when asked if 31-year-old Bivol is the best at 175. “Beterbiev, he’s strong, but he’s just moving forward, but Bivol, he’s strong, smart and knows his way into the box.
“He has everything and has a great slot. I was looking forward to it, and I was prepared for it. We prepared with Eddy [Reynoso] with multiple head movements. Eddy threw me a lot of knives,” said Canelo.
Reynoso said of Canelo: “This is just another step in history to go to 175, uniting those titles against bigger, stronger fighters. “He is [Bivol] one of the best ways to keep it at a distance, not to take a chance. ”
Hatton predicts Canelo will become undisputed at the age of 175
“I think Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez can go through and unify the light-heavy division after beating Dmitry Bivol this weekend,” Ricky Hatton told Metro.
“Having to say, I think it’s going to be the hardest fight of his career since losing to Floyd Mayweather,” Hatton said of Canelo.
“He proved to Sergey Kovalev in 2019 that he could carry his weight with him and up against a much larger man,” Hatton said.
“I think Bivol is a bit fresher than Kovalevslightly sharper, and of course, undefeated.
“He definitely has the strength and power to move through the weights, which is also due to his great defensive ability. He skews the weight advantage of his opponents,” Hatton said.
