Trainer Eddy Reynoso is already looking past Canelo Alvarez’s next opponent Gennadiy Golovkin towards a much-desired rematch with Dmitry Bivol that they want.
For Reynoso to be talking about the Bivol fight, shows that he sees the victory is in the bag for Canelo against Golovkin in their trilogy fight on September 17th.
Reynoso sees WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs) as a thorn in Canelo’s side after the talented champion outboxed the Mexican star two months ago on DAZN, winning a 12-round unanimous decision on May 7th.
According to Reynoso, the fight was close and Canelo lost the match by failing to win the 11th and 12th rounds.
The judges’ identical scores of 115-113 x 3 would support what Reynoso says about the Canelo vs. Bivol fight coming down to the wire.
Many boxing fans, however, viewed it as a more conclusive victory for Bivol than the three scores handed in by the Nevada judges that night.
Canelo had the opportunity to fight an immediate rematch with Bivol to erase the loss, but he wanted to take the trilogy match with Golovkin (42-1-1, 37 KOs).
His recent performances against lesser opposition showed that he was aging, and couldn’t continue winning even against those types of fighters for much longer.
“Prepare a lot better, and do things better,” Reynoso said to Fight Hub TV when asked why he believes Canelo can win the rematch with Bivol. “I think we were close to winning the fight. We lost the last two rounds, and that caused us to lose the fight.”
Reynoso hints during the interview about injuries when talking about Canelo’s loss to Bivol.
While Reynoso doesn’t come right out and state that Canelo fought Bivol with a preexisting physical problem, he dances around the subject of injuries, making it clear that he fought with some kind of ailment.
Assuming Canelo was healthy in his three previous fights before the Bivol match, the way he fought against the likes of Caleb Plant and Billy Joe Saunders likely wouldn’t have been sufficient to defeat Dmitry.
Canelo was just loading up on single shots against Plant, Saunders, and Avni Yildirim. That’s how he fought against Bivol, and it wasn’t good enough.
“With better preparation and training for Bivol, without a doubt, we will win. Of course, we give advantages,” said Reynoso.
If Canelo is going to prepare better, he needs help with his conditioning because that was the initial problem that caused him to struggle in the early rounds against Bivol.
Without Reynoso fixing Canelo conditioning, he’s basically doing window dressing on areas that he improves. Reynoso can improve Canelo’s defense or perhaps his jab, but if his stamina is still substandard, Bivol will win again.
“Nah, he doesn’t have the physical qualities,” Reynoso said about Gennadiy not being able to fight like Bivol. “Not as long of a reach as Bivol. His jab isn’t as long, as he doesn’t move like Bivol.”
