Abel Sanchez says he thinks Dmitry Bivol is too “cautious” for him to have any real shot at beating Canelo Alvarez in their fight on May 7th.
Sanchez, who used to train Gennadiy Golovkin, feels that Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs) lacks the intensity to take his game to another level to defeat Canelo (57-1-2, 39 KOs), and he’s giving him only a 30% chance of winning.
Canelo will be moving up in weight to challenge undefeated 31-year-old Bivol for his WBA 175-lb title on May 7th on DAZN pay-per-view at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
If Bivol hasn’t been told yet, he needs to know that he’s not going to defeat Canelo by fighting in a safety-first manner, throwing jabs, or usual left-right combinations.
The only way a fighter like Bivol can beat Canelo is to battle him in the trenches, throwing nonstop shots, and being willing to take his big shots in return.
Canelo’s stamina will likely give out on him if he’s forced to fight at a fast pace in close for six rounds against Bivol, and he would be vulnerable in the last half of the fight.
Golovkin didn’t have the inside game or the willingness to fight Canelo in close the way that he needed for him to win.
Unless Bivol can change his game by May 7th, he’ll likely suffer the same fate as Golovkin and the recent super middleweight champions the Mexican star defeated to become the undisputed champion.
It’s pretty obvious what Bivol needs to do for him to beat Canelo. He’s got to go battle him at medium to close range and push a fast pace.
Given the location of the Canelo-Bivol fight, taking place at the T-Mobile Arena, Bivol might as well forget about trying to win a decision and go all out for the knockout.
Canelo and his management were clever to bring it back to Las Vegas because he’s unbeatable in that city.
“He is a very skilled fighter but he’s a very cautious fighter, he doesn’t take the chances you need to take at that level,” said Abel Sanchez to Fight Hub TV about Bivol.
“Bivol will present some problems in the beginning…but once Canelo zooms in, maybe sixth, seventh, eighth round, I’m not gonna say an easy fight but a fight that will be easily won by him,” Sanchez.
Where Sanchez is using faulty reasoning is his mistake of lumping Bivol in with the same bunch of weak champions Canelo beat to become the undisputed champion at 168, as well as his wins over 175-lb belt-holder Sergey Kovalev and 160-lb champion Daniel Jacobs.
Bivol is clearly better than the champions Canelo has beaten in the last four years from late 2018 to now. It’s easy for Bivol to figure out the mistakes fighters like Kovalev, Jacobs, Billy Joe Saunders, Caleb Plant, Rocky Fielding, and Callum Smith made against Canelo.
These guys are fighters that would have never been world champions if not for each division being watered down with five world titles up for grabs.
When you have that many world titles available, it makes it possible for fighters like Saunders, Plant, Fielding, Jacobs, Smith, and Kovalev to win belts.
If Canelo had to win his 168-lb division against David Benavidez and his 175-lb belt against Artur Beterbiev, it’s fair to say he would never have won world titles in those weight classes.
With that being said, it’s unlikely Canelo would have ever attempted to capture belts because he and his trainer/manager Eddy Reynoso are extremely calculated about the risks they take.
“I don’t think so,” said on whether Bivol has a shot at beating Canelo.
“When Canelo stalks you like he does and lands shots where he lands them, it’s going to be difficult to stay away from him. Canelo’s on a different level right now,” said Sanchez.
