Coach of the WBA Super light heavyweight champion (up to 79.4 kg) of Russian Dmitry Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs) Gennady Mashyanov gave
interview for the USACHEV TV YouTube channel.
In a conversation, the mentor expressed an opinion on why the absolute champion of the second middleweight (up to 76.2 kg) Mexican Canelo Alvarez (57-2-2, 39 KOs) went to fight against Bivol, spoke about his feelings during the last fight, spoke on about a possible revenge, and also commented on the opinion of the Ukrainian ex-champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk.
What do you think made Canelo’s team agree to fight Dmitry Bivol?
“Canelo fought a lot of the likes, they thought. With Smith and more … They are all the same size as Dima, roughly speaking, both height and anthropometric data … Canelo passed them all calmly, roughly speaking, without much difficulty. And with the same Serezha Kovalev, he boxed quite calmly. He did not have such tension in the battle, psychological or something else. He believes that he has the initiative, that he sees everything, he just waited for it to be possible to hit, and caught Kovalev on the blow. And he found this moment, and he thought that he would also box with Dima. They did not take into account that Dima is a completely different boxer than these. They anthropometrically, physically corresponded to Dima, but the skill, capabilities and technical equipment, of course, are a little different there.
When did you have your biggest emotions? When was the winner announced or at some other time?
– Emotions appeared when the fight was over. In principle, my emotions were positive after the third round. The fight began, and I watched two rounds there, I gave Dima instructions, we talked with him how to proceed, how to continue the fight, what pattern to withstand. He was so calm and confident. And at that moment, roughly speaking, not that emotions flooded over me, but I calmed down. Dima calmly fought, I corrected, made some adjustments, he fulfilled them all. And everything moved on just fine. And the whole fight… Assessing the situation, Dima responded to every successful attack by Canelo with 3-4 successful strikes. Therefore, the superiority increased with each round, and I was very pleased. Without any, I was already waiting for the announcement. But I was waiting for an announcement that they could give a draw, pull it out somehow or something else, but I didn’t think that they would give Dima a defeat. To keep the stardom of Canelo, I thought they could give a draw. But the spectator in the stands and the spectator at the screens – he is the most important evaluator. And experts, and everyone else perfectly saw who won this fight.
Canelo explains why he will fight Golovkin first and then Bivol
I think Canelo is a very cool boxer. No wonder he was considered and is considered one of the best in the world at the moment. I saw him directly in the fight with Dima, before that fights and everything else. Yes, I think he is one of the best at the moment, if not the best boxer. Well, Dima coped with it. And the fact that they say that Canelo has not climbed into his weight or something else is all women’s talk, I think. Because when they went to the fight, my opinion was that Canelo was heavier than Dima during the fight. If Dima was 83 kg, then Canelo was 85 kg. Yes, he is shorter, but in size, density, muscle mass … He has a wide bone, he is a squat, wide boxer. Dima is taller than him. He had an advantage in arm length. Well, in principle, the level of skill and everything in Canelo is very good.
– Would you like to see the continuation of the story with Canelo in the ring? In any format, in another weight, in this weight?
“Of course, Canelo won’t calm down. As I understand it, he is such an ambitious, such a proud person. He will try to insist on a rematch and do something in the rematch. Roughly speaking, justify themselves to their own. But that doesn’t mean he’ll win the rematch. I think that Dima will show boxing no worse than in the first fight, and maybe even better. Because my opinion is that Dima worked out 70-80 percent of his capabilities.
– I was surprised by the words of Canelo’s sparring partner Alexander Gvozdik, who said that Canelo won, and he named the reason that all Dmitry’s mistakes should have been considered in Canelo’s favor.
— [смеётся] It’s not that I don’t want to comment… I don’t know what happened to Gvozdyk. I considered him a reasonable person, a competent boxer. What happened to him? Maybe something has gone wrong, maybe something is not good with his health, his head is spinning or there are some symptoms of headaches or, as they say, diseases of the brain. But this is his question. What are we going to focus on Gvozdik today or on his resume, his grades?
Hearn already has an opponent for Bivol at the end of the year