Jamel Herring thinks Canelo Alvarez could choose to move up to 175 to challenge Artur Beterbiev for his undisputed championship after watching his lackluster performance beating Dmitry Bivol on Saturday night in Riyadh.
Herring says Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) didn’t look like this old monster himself, who was down during periods of the fight before coming to the end to win a close 12-round majority decision. The results were not well received by many fans, who insisted that Bivol should have won.
Herring thinks Canelo will be confident after watching that fight. He saw how Beterbiev looked slow, wasn’t throwing many punches and came close to losing to Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs).
Jamel believes that Canelo may want to go for the fight to add to his legacy. He previously discussed wanting to fight Bivol in a rematch to avenge his 12-round unanimous decision loss to him on May 7, 2022.
If His Excellency Turki Alalshikh would be open to letting Canelo go ahead of the Beterbiev-Bivol rematch, he could face Beterbiev later for all the gold. The winner of the Canelo vs Beterbiev fight could then face Bivol if he is interested.
That would make things more interesting for the public than to see an immediate rematch between Bivol and Beterbiev because we’ve seen them fight, and we know how the second contest will play out. In other words, Bivol will move a lot, jab, throw fast combinations, and probably do a lot of holding.
“I thought after the performance because I thought Beterbiev maybe slowed down a little bit,” Jamel Herring told Fighthype when he was asked about the possibility of Canelo Alvarez challenging Artur Beterbiev for his undisputed lightweight championship.
“Let’s be real. Fighters see that, and that could be a weakness. So, maybe Canelo flirts with the idea, especially if it’s for the idea of being undisputed in another weight division.
“We see a lot of fighters become undisputed not only in one weight class, but in several weight classes. So, I could see the chip added to the legacy for Canelo to flirt with the idea of going undisputed in another division weight against an older Beterbiev if he doesn’t take the Bivol fight in the rematch.
“I think the activity hurt Canelo a lot in his fight (with Bivol). Beterbiev fights at a certain speed at times. That could be bad. Canelo has one of the best chins in the game. He has the defense. I think that Canelo can flirt with the idea. This guy is not Superman like we thought he was. It’s not like Beterbiev is down.
“Sometimes fighters feel like, ‘Okay, it’s still going to happen.’ I think Bivol said that Canelo hits harder (ca Beterbiev). Of course the fighters take this. “Maybe, I hit harder than him,’ and go from there,” Herring said of Canelo potentially looking at Beterbiev now, thinking he can beat him.
