Canelo Alvarez is convinced that he will defeat Dmitry Bivol in their rematch in September despite being outclassed by the talented WBA light heavyweight champion last May in Las Vegas.
What’s unclear is why Canelo (58-2-2, 39 KOs) is so confident of beating Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs) the second time around because the red-haired superstar looked so incredibly lost in his defeat on May 7th last year at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Canelo will need to revamp his entire game for him to have a real shot at defeating Bivol because his single-punch style of fighting isn’t likely to have success against a fighter at this level.
Bivol is too sound on defense for Canelo to load up on single shots and take out as he did against the four paper champions at 168 that he defeated to become the undisputed champion in 2021.
Can Alvarez rebuild himself?
Unfortunately, Canelo’s poor stamina precludes him from becoming the combination puncher that he would need to be for him to have a shot at defeating Bivol. Canelo’s trainer Eddy Reynoso would need to be a magician to rebuild Canelo at this late stage of his career.
While Reynoso did an excellent job of adding a lot of muscle to Canelo’s frame to avoid being overpowered by the bigger, stronger Gennadiy Golovkin in their first two fights, that won’t work against a fighter of Bivol’s class.
For the 32-year-old Canelo to suddenly overnight become a high-volume puncher at this stage of his 18-year professional career is unrealistic.
What struck many boxing fans as odd was how all three judges scored the Canelo-Bivol fight an identical 115-113 when in truth, it looked more like a 118-110 [i.e., 10-2] fight in which Bivol gave Canelo a couple of mercy rounds by taking his foot off the accelerator to have him expend energy while he rested with his back against the ropes.
Canelo confident of winning
“I know me too, and I know I’m going to beat him in the rematch,” said Canelo Alvarez to ESNEWS about his expected rematch with Dmitry Bivol in September.
What Canelo has going in his favor, besides being able to choose the venue, is that Bivol has agreed to boil down to 168 for the rematch.
Eddie Hearn has persuaded Bivol to take the rematch for Canelo’s undisputed super middleweight championship to entice him to take the fight because he prefers to face IBF, WBC & WBO light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev for the undisputed championship rather than run it back against an opponent he already thoroughly beat.
It’s expected that Canelo will insist on the Bivol rematch in Las Vegas again, and it’s predictable that he’ll return to the T-Mobile Arena, which is the same venue as last time, and where his first two contests against Gennadiy Golovkin took place.
