Canelo not second-guessing his strategy for Bivol fight

By Rob Smith - 06/27/2022 - Comments

Canelo Alvarez doesn’t regret fighting aggressively from the start in his recent loss against the bigger fighter Dmitry Bivol in a failed effort to capture his WBA light heavyweight title last May.

Canelo (57-2-2, 39 KOs) says his body didn’t respond to what he wanted it to do for that clash, and it wasn’t a case of the game plan being wrong.

There was something wrong physically with Canelo, which prevented him from fighting at 100% to defeat Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs) as he’d done with his opponents last year at 168.

For the rematch with Bivol, Canelo says he’ll be at full capacity, and will implement his plans to defeat the undefeated WBA champion.

But first things first. Canelo will be defending his undisputed super middleweight championship against Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin on September 17th in Las Vegas.

“No, it wasn’t a mistake. I just tried to do my job, but like I said before, my body didn’t respond for me in that fight, and that’s it,” said Canelo Alvarez to Fighthype when asked if he made a mistake of choosing to aggressively attack the bigger Dmitry Bivol last May.

Bivol made a lot of mistakes in that fight that Canelo could have taken advantage of if he didn’t fade so quickly after three rounds.

When you look at the number of times Bivol shelled up against the ropes, a healthy Canelo would have taken advantage of the situation to score a knockout or win a decision. As it is, Canelo came close to defeating Bivol, losing by the scores of 115-113 x 3.

“Yeah,” said Canelo when asked if he might come in a little bit lighter in the low 170s for his rematch with Bivol. “I need to focus on this [Gennadiy Golovkin] and we can talk but it’s going to be different.

“No, I’m good,” said Canelo when asked if he’s tired of hearing about potential fights against David Benavidez and Jermall Charlo. “I’m just doing my job and that’s it. I know everybody wants to fight me.

“I’m doing my job, and I don’t care what they say and what they want. I understand that everybody wants to fight me because of money too, right?” said Canelo when asked if it’s unfair that he is always being pressured to fight Charlo and Benavidez, but Golovkin isn’t being asked to do the same thing.

“I understand that when you’re at the top, everybody is talking about you. That’s fine; bad or good, that’s fine,” said Canelo.

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