Dmitry Bivol will make it an “ugly fight” against Canelo Alvarez on May 7th says Gabriel Rosado in predicting how their 175-lb championship contest will play out on DAZN at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Bivol will be defending his WBA light heavyweight title against the belt-hungry Canelo (57-1-2, 39 KOs), who is hoping to snatch his strap from him to make a quick move to become a two-division world champion.
The size & mobility of the highly technical Bivol could be a problem for Canelo because he hasn’t faced a fighter with an all-around game since his controversial 12 round split decision victory over Erislandy Lara in 2014.
While Canelo has faced some talented fighters like Caleb Plant, Billy Joe Saunders, Gennadiy Golovkin, Sergey Kovalev, and Miguel Cotto in the last eight years, they were limited by age, stamina, and in some cases the judging.
In Bivol’s case, he’s not old like Golovkin, Cotto & Kovalev, and doesn’t possess the stamina problems that troubled Saunders and Plant.
The one area where Bivol could have issues is with the judging. Canelo has chosen to stage his fight with Bivol at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, and this, of course, is the same location where the Mexican star twice fought Golovkin in contests that fans felt were robberies.
Rosado says he’s sparred Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs) years ago at Freddie Roach’s Wildcard Gym in Los Angeles, and noted a lot of the things the Russian fighter is good at.
“Bivol is going to have to get a little grimy, use his weight, leaning on Canelo, make it an ugly fight,” said Gabriel Rosado to the DAZN Boxing Show.
“Canelo may not be as big as Bivol, but he’s faster, I think we’re going to see a lot of explosive combinations, a lot of in and out. Bivol ain’t the fastest guy, he does have quick feet,” said Rosado.
The in and out movement and combination punching will be done exclusively by Bivol in this fight, as Canelo is a plodder at this stage in his career.
Alvarez never had fast feet to begin with, but now after 17 years in the game, Canelo moves more like a slow heavyweight, using his high guard to walk down his opponents. Canelo throws single shots now and loads up on everything looking for a knockout.
It’s going to be interesting to see how Canelo adjusts to the combination punching from Bivol because he hasn’t fought a combination punch in many years.
Most of the guys Canelo has fought in the last ten years were fighters that never threw combinations unless they had their opponent hurt.
If Bivol is able to repeatedly nail Canelo with two to four punch combinations, he’s going to need to do something to deal with that firepower because he’s going to be outgunned.
“He has a good jab, a good one-two, I actually sparred Bivol a few years back here at Wildcard [gym in Los Angeles],” said Rosado.
“I think Canelo is going to be able to be explosive with his speed, his combinations. I do favor him [Saul Alvarez] against Bivol,” said Rosado.