Antonio Tarver feels Canelo Alvarez has a chance to beat undisputed lightweight champion Artur Beterbiev at 175 if he can avoid getting hit by him like Dmitry Bivol did on Saturday night in Riyadh.
Tarver thinks Canelo’s mobility issues could make him easy prey for Beterbiev if he can’t move the way Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) can to elude him. He notes that Canelo is slow on his feet and is not as mobile as Bivol.
Beterbiev Holds the Crown Jewels
If Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) can avoid getting knocked out cleanly by Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs), he could outbox him if he’s able to do that for 12 rounds like the former WBA 175-lb. champion Bivol did last Saturday.
Bivol would have won if he hadn’t moved so much and forgot to throw punches in the second part of his fight. Canelo will not make that mistake. He will pitch and not try to screw up his way to a controversial win like Bivol did. He is more of a warrior and will look to block Beterbiev’s shots and counter him all night.
Canelo and his manager, Eddy Reynoso, have not talked about challenging Beterbiev for his undisputed championship next, but if they say they want him next, His Excellency Turki Alalshikh readily agrees.
As much interest as there is in a rematch between Beterbiev and Bivol, there would be much more attraction for fans in a Canelo-Beterbiev match. That would attract more interest, and it would be more exciting to watch because Canelo wasn’t moving for 12 rounds, trying not to get hit like Bivol did.
“I don’t know. Canelo said if Bivol had won (against Beterbiev), he was going to Bivol,” Antonio Tarver told Fighthype on what Canelo Alvarez needs to do to defeat undisputed lightweight champion Artur Beterbiev.
“I don’t think Eddy (Reynoso) liked that fight the first time, and now Canelo is pushing to go. If Canelo goes to 175 and doesn’t fight anymore at 168, that’s fine, we like it. But if he has to live at 168, and with David Benavidez moving on, we lost this fight altogether. As a fight fan, I would have liked to see Canelo-Benavidez.”
Canelo has already said he wants $200 million for the Benavidez fight, so it’s a waste of time to keep bleating about that match happening. If Canelo is going to fight a light heavyweight, he’s going to want to fight the best, which means Beterbiev. Sorry, Bivol, but you lost your chance to fight shyly on Saturday night. You may have to wait your turn if Canelo decides to fight Beterbiev next.
Canelo’s mobility issues
“Now that we’ve set the table with Beterbiev-Canelo,” Tarver said. “Canelo is not as fluid as Bivol. Even if he moves, he doesn’t move as much anymore. Again, you heard Bivol say that the punching power was still there (against Beterbiev), even though “He took a lot of that stuff on the gloves. The one or two times he did it, it was devastating. He could have landed a couple more flushes, I think.” which stops him in the distance.
There were also a lot of shots from Beterbiev that went through Bivol, hitting him in the head, and that took a lot out of the fight. There was a right hand that Beterbiev hit Bivol with in the seventh round during an exchange that sapped his will to fight.
Bivol showed no heart after getting hit hard by Beterbiev, and the rest of the fight was like a track match. It wasn’t remotely appealing other than the suspense of wondering if Bivol would be trapped and knocked out.
“Now, with a slower Canelo and a smaller Canelo coming up, I would hate to see Beterbiev land his shots on Canelo,” Tarver said. “In terms of height, he probably doesn’t have a lot of size against Canelo. Canelo is quite big. In terms of size, they could watch each other. But with punching power, I just think that Beterbiev hits a lot more strong, and it’s a challenge for Canelo. He’ll probably go into that fight as an underdog, but Canelo is a great fighter, an all-time great.
The oddsmakers could make Canelo the favorite over Beterbiev as they did with Bivol, which was wrong. They will probably make Canelo the favorite because he is the star, and they will base the choice on how Beterbiev fought last Saturday. Let’s face it, that was not vintage Beterbiev.
“I know one thing. A bad night that he (Beterbiev) had, that I thought he had, if he fought like he fought against Bivol, I think Canelo has a chance,” Tarver said. “If he can’t land solid on Canelo, Canelo has a chance. If he can avoid a big shot, like Bivol did, and get the distance, he has a chance. But if Beterbiev starts to crack, and start hitting the flow, that’s the power to change the fight.”
Canelo has an excellent chance of defeating Beterbiev if he gets the same version of what we saw against Bivol. The only question is whether Canelo will be able to block or land the shots that Beterbiev will throw once he has him trapped against the ropes as he repeatedly did against Bivol.
“If Father Time was not the catalyst in that fight against Bivol, and we will not know until the rematch. How does (Beterbiev) feel when he returns to the training camp. Can he regain his balance? Can it be his timing more precisely because he missed a lot of punches in that fight that could have changed the game.
“I think Benavidez does it because of size. He’s a natural light heavyweight, a big guy,” Tarver said when asked who is the biggest threat to Artur Beterbiev between Canelo and David Benavidez. “He’ll have height and reach over Beterbiev, and he can box. Yes, if he can avoid being cracked because, I’m telling you, Beterbiev is still the hardest puncher in the game. I believe in his power until I see otherwise.
“The reason he didn’t get Bivol out of there, and maybe it was all Bivol, but he was never able to land a flush KO shot where he really measured and went in. I didn’t see that shot all night . Even the uppercut was not smashing like you usually see. The two uppercuts they showed didn’t hit him, and that was Beterbiev all night long,” Tarver said. .
Beterbiev landed uppercuts on Bivol, and had him in a state of pure panic from rounds 8 to 12. Bivol looked scared and gave up the fight. His promoter, Eddie Hearn, was all worked up after his loss, seeing Canelo’s fight money disappear before his eyes. Bivol was hit with enough shots by Beterbiev that he didn’t want to throw in the second half. So, he lost, and now there is a possibility that Canelo steps in to face the king, Beterbiev, if he wants to.
“I think so because of his size, height and height,” Tarver said when asked if Benavidez would have a better chance against Beterbiev than Canelo. “The way Benavidez is a lot more aggressive, I could see him supporting Beterbiev with that jab. So, David has a little bit of shit with him. Like Canelo, but I just think the height and height would give Canelo some problems,” Tarver said.
Benavidez is too easy to catch, and try to go to war with Beterbiev. That would end badly for Benavidez, who was beaten in his fight against former WBC lightweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk on June 15. Benavidez won this fight by a 12-round unanimous decision, but it looked like he had been hit by a car. Beterbiev would be all over Benavidez, hitting him with head shots that would break his frail body.
