Superstar Canelo Alvarez made it clear today that his goal is to fight Dmitry Bivol in a rematch in September after his May 6th title defense against John Ryder.
Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs) beat Canelo last May by a 12 round unanimous decision in a bout that got totally out of hand in the second half after Alvarez gassed out.
The judges that worked the Canelo-Bivol fight at the T-Mobile Area in Las Vegas scored the bout an identical 115-113, 115-113, and 115-113. Many fans on social media scored the fight 118-110 for Bivol.
Perhaps Canelo’s best chance of defeating Bivol in the rematch is to have the same three judges as worked in the first fight.
It’s unclear what Canelo plans on doing with his training plan to give himself a better chance of beating Bivol in the rematch because he’s going to need to make massive improvements for him to have a shot at winning.
Canelo (58-2-2, 39 KOs) added that if the rematch with Bivol doesn’t happen, he’d be interested in facing his WBC 168-lb mandatory David Benavidez.
“It’s not easy to compare. Styles make fights, and that doesn’t say anything,” said Canelo Alvarez to Fighthype when asked what he thinks of David Benavidez’s victory over Caleb Plant.
“Sometimes you can knock out somebody, so no comparison. I’m always available to fight anybody, but you know my goal is to fight Bivol in September. If that fight is not happening, then we’ll see.
“Yeah, why not?” said Canelo when asked if a fight between him and David Benavidez would be like this era’s version of Erik Morales vs. Marco Antonio Barrera. “It can happen. Why not?”
“You have to earn your fight [against Canelo] in some way. You have to have a belt, you have to have a big win, and I think Canelo acknowledges that victory over Caleb Plant would give him shouting rights to say, ‘Me,'” said Eddie Hearn to Fight Hub TV.
“You look at the mandatory challengers that he’s had to face in his career. One of them was Avni Yildirim. He’s about ten levels above Avni Yildirim,” said Hearn to Fino Boxing about John Ryder being a much better challenger to Canelo than some of the guys he’s faced.
“He’s a guy that has really grown at super middleweight. Don’t forget on the card when he boxed Danny Jacobs. He beat Dan Jacobs and Zach Parker, and Canelo had no choice but to fight him if he wants to keep undisputed,” Hearn said about John Ryder.
“If you look at the run that Saul has had. Of course, Billy Joe Saunders, Caleb Plant, Dmitry Bivol, Gennadiy Golovkin. It’s time for a mandatory, and I think it’s a very solid fight.
“I saw it for the first time in Guadalajara. Looking at all the emotion from him, and looking at his family and his grandmother on the front row as well. It must be an incredible experience to bring a fight back to your hometown where when he was a kid, he was selling ice pops on the street. He should be very proud,” said Hearn.
