Former world heavyweight champion, also a former heavyweight fighter, and now a popular boxing analyst from Britain, Tony Bellew gave
interview for local media.
In a conversation, Bellew expressed his opinion about the defeat of the absolute champion of the second middleweight (up to 76.2 kg) Mexican Canelo Alvarez (57-2-2, 39 KOs) to the “super champion” according to the WBA light heavyweight (up to 79.4 kg) Russian Dmitry Bivolu (20-0, 11 KOs). The British expert compared Bivol to his compatriot, former unified champion Sergey Kovalev (35-4-1, 29 KOs) and believes that Canelo will win in a rematch.
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– Canelo Alvarez showed an unsatisfactory result when he came out against Dmitry Bivol. He had a bad night. Fighters have bad nights. This is boxing, this is how it happens. I just believe Canelo Alvarez had a bad night with Dimitri Bivol and Bivol was great. That’s when Dmitry met with Craig Richards, then Craig was great, and Bivol showed himself worse than expected. Fighters have bad nights. This is a good thing.
Do you think people criticize Canelo too much after losing?
– Absolute stupidity. The guy has been on an amazing streak of victories in various weight classes for years. And he just bombed everyone. And now he had one bad night and suddenly he was not so good? Incredible. It’s such a volatile sport. The only sport that is even more volatile is football, especially the Premier League. But Canelo is a great fighter, don’t criticize him. He’s just incredibly talented. He had a bad night. He did not sculpt any excuses, he did not go out and say that he had injuries, although he clearly had them in preparation. He did not talk about a single problem, but simply lost to the best fighter. Respect to him. He is human, after all. People have bad nights. He has great days, good days and bad days. Whatever he had, he could fight Bivol’s style, which is tactically very active on the feet, with good distance estimation and enough punches to make him think twice about approaches. But actually I think he will beat Bivol in a rematch. I really think so. He just had a bad night.
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Is it fair for Dimitri Bivol when you say Canelo had a bad night instead of focusing on Bivol?
“I think Bivol was great. Because he used his attributes perfectly. But I have seen Canelo miss from stronger punchers. Sergey Kovalev was a more powerful puncher than Dmitry Bivol. So sorry. Sergey Kovalev is more dangerous than Dimitri Bivol, but Canelo found a way to win that night, even though Kovalev outboxed him at times in the fight. But he found a way to win.
I think if Canelo is on the crest of the wave, he will find a way to beat Bivol. I might be wrong. This has happened many times. But I’m just looking at styles. I think Canelo thought it was going to be an easier fight and he did a poor job. At the same time, Bivol overestimated Canelo, thought he was much harder to hit. He did not think that he would have a reaction from missed punches. When you see Canelo Alvarez take a right slap right to the chin from a puncher like Gennady Golovkin and he just takes the punch, you think, “I’m not going to knock him out.” But when he reacts and pauses… Bivol sort of took him by surprise. And you saw in battle, he reacted. Bivol didn’t pressure him to knock him out, but he was glad he was scoring points and winning this fight.
What is, is, styles make fights. And they will always change, but what will not change is my opinion of Canelo Alvarez as a fighter. An oddball, an incredible talent, the only fighter in a generation to make it through the weight classes just seemed to float through them. Now he’s running into a bit of a problem, but as I said, it’s a problem he can fix. It takes a thunder puncher to get rid of Canelo when he’s at his best. People can say whatever they want, but I don’t believe he was at his best against Dmitry Bivol.
I am the only Mexican who can beat Bivol. So says the ex-champ
