Dmitry Bivol says Canelo Alvarez still hasn’t yet activated his rematch clause in his contract for the second fight in September, and he’s not sure if he will.
Canelo, 31, will need to let Bivol know soon what his plans are because he can’t wait until July or August to activate the rematch for September 17th because that would give him very little time to prepare.
If Canelo is looking for an advantage over Bivol, delaying to activate of his rematch clause until the last minute would certainly be one way to do it.
Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs) defeated Canelo (57-2-2, 39 KOs) by a masterful 12-round unanimous decision to retain his WBA light heavyweight title last Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
According to Bivol, he’d prefer to fight one of the other champions so he can gain a world title at 175. He says he gains nothing by fighting Canelo again because he has already beaten him, and he doesn’t possess a world title at 175.
Although Bivol says he would be open to moving down to 168 to fight Canelo for his undisputed championship, he’d prefer to stay at 175 for the rematch.
“I want more belts; I want to move forward and fight for more belts,” said Dmitry Bivol. “If I beat Canelo again, it’s like I’m in the same place and have the same belt and the same victory.
“I prefer to fight for another belt, but he has some options for a rematch. I give him a rematch because I have to, but I prefer to fight with another champion.
“September, no problem. I will be ready for September. I have not heard that he wants a rematch,” Bivol said of Canelo. “I have not received any offer on the date or the rematch.
“If it’s September, I can be ready for September, but he has to decide and use his option,” said Bivol.
Canelo delaying the activation of the rematch clause doesn’t necessarily mean that had doesn’t want to fight him again. It could be that the Mexican star and his trainer/manager Eddy Reynoso are still weighing their options.
If Canelo moves back down to 168, he can fight Gennadiy Golovkin on September 17th in a trilogy match on DAZN PPV and make a lot of money. It’s a more winnable fight for Canelo than taking a rematch with Bivol, and it would help him bounce back from his loss.
The one downside for Canelo moving back won to 168 to fight Golovkin is that fans will see it as a cowardly move because he’s not even attempting to avenge his loss to Bivol.
It probably won’t help matters if Canelo tells the fans that he’s still going to fight Bivol later after he faces Golovkin first. Fans won’t understand that excuse and will give Canelo a lot of flak.
“Maybe style-wise, the Pascal fight was a worse one than Canelo because we knew all along that Canelo had a lot of power,” said manager Vadim Kornilov. “We knew Dmitry had the boxing skills to beat him.
“I was mostly worried about the star factor and the judges and all of that,” said Kornilov.
“From the beginning of the fight, I felt I controlled the fight,” said Bivol in his match against superstar Canelo. “After five or six rounds, I was 100% sure that he didn’t like how the fight was going on.
“We have two different types of power,” Bivol continued when asked to rate Canelo’s power. “The first one is people that are born with heavy hands.
“He’s born with heavy hands. It’s like Artur Beterbiev or Joe Smith. They’re born with a strong punch. The second, you can create your power. It’s like Canelo. He creates his power. He tries to punch every time hard. It’s different, but with both of them, it’s power.
“The main difference is that a person like Canelo to generate the power, he expends a lot more energy than Beterbiev or Smith, who just have the power there. It’s there from birth, but they’re both strong,” said Bivol.
