Canelo Alvarez says he wants a rematch with Dmitry Bivol in May 2025 if he beats Artur Beterbiev in their undisputed heavyweight championship clash on October 12. Alvarez would still need to win his fight against Edgar Berlanga on Saturday night to meet Bivol next May.
(Credit: Ryan Hafey & Rey Del Rio/Premier Boxing Champions)
If Canelo took the fight with Bivol next, it would be a way to return to David Benavidez, mandatory WBC for the belt of the lightweight champion Artur Beterbiev with that organization.
Benavidez expects to fight the winner of the Bivol-Beterbiev winner next. Canelo could tease Benavidez by fighting Bivol, beating him, and then vacating all four belts.
That would fragment them, preventing Benavidez from capturing them all at once as he hopes. However, no one expected Benavidez to beat the winner of Bivol vs. Beterbiev because he looked bang average in his debut at 175 on May 18th, working to a very doubtful 12-round unanimous decision over Oleksandr Gvozdyk.
Canelo (61-2-2, 39 KOs) won’t say why he wouldn’t want to fight Artur Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs) if he emerges victorious against Bivol (23-0, 12 KOs) in his undisputed . struggle
It could be that Canelo’s only focus is to avenge his 12-round unanimous decision loss to Bivol on May 7, 2022. All three judges scored the fight identically, 115-113. It was very strange.
They even had Canelo sweeping the first four rounds, and few fans agreed with that. I watched the fight and it scored for Bivol with a wide margin of 120-108. A more realistic reason Canelo wants Bivol is that Beterbiev is a dangerous puncher and will likely knock him out.
That’s not a way Canelo wants to lose. At least with Bivol, the only thing Canelo has to worry about is losing by decision because he’s not a knockout puncher. Bivol is afraid of being hit, and always runs away when under attack. Beterbiev wouldn’t do that if Canelo attacked him. He would stay on the ground and beat him to the canvas, sending him out in inglorious fashion.
“When I spoke to Canelo yesterday, he said he wanted Dmitry Bivol next, provided, of course, that Bivol beats Beterbiev on October 12 in Riyadh for the undisputed light heavyweight championship,” said Mike Coppinger on XThey are talking about Canelo Alvarez wanting to fight Dmitry Bivol if he is victorious over Artur Beterbiev in their fight on October 12th.
For this fight to have a chance to succeed, not only Bivol must defeat Beterbiev, but His Excellency Turki Alalshikh must also agree. There is already talk of Bivol and Beteriev fighting an immediate rematch. Even if they don’t, Turki may prefer the winner to fight then interim WBC lightweight champion David Benavidez. Turki is the one who will decide which fight is made, not Canelo.
“What’s nice about that fight, if it happens, is that it’s a real departure from Canelo’s last three or four fights. It’s a fight where Canelo will be a decided underdog. I thought he fought (Bivol) in May 2022, it was a 10-2, 9-3 fight at best for Canelo,” Coppiner said.
If the rematch happens, Bivol would be a clear favorite over Canelo, and yes, it would be a departure from the guys Alvarez has fought in his last four fights. But it is not yet clear if Bivol will beat Beterbiev on October 12 because he looked chinny and crazy in recent fights. Lyndon Arthur had Bivol injured last December, and he looked timid in his last contest against little-known fringe contender Malik Zinad on June 1.
“Canelo says, ‘Look, I know I can beat him.’ I am a better fighter. I said, “Your hand was hurt, wasn’t it?” ‘Not just my hand. Everything was off,’ and you could tell the loss still bothered him,” Coppinger said of Canelo’s loss to Bivol two years ago.
Canelo’s hand injury is not the reason he lost the fight to Bivol. He was too small for Bivol, and unable to handle the combination of punches from the better conditioned lightweight champion. Canelo looked tired by the third round and was getting hammered by Bivol, who appeared to be fighting in early gear.
“I think for a guy who’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer and an all-time great, it’s a real legacy-defining fight. If you can beat a guy pound-for-pound like Bivol, that would have come off a win over Beterbiev and be the undisputed champion, Canelo could be undisputed at a second weight. I think that would be huge, and again, no one is going to pick Canelo in that fight,” Coppinger said.
I doubt Canelo’s real reasoning for wanting to fight Bivol is to capture the undisputed light heavyweight championship. The real reason is that he will be paid huge money from that fight by His Excellency Turki Alalshikh, and he will have an integrated apology if he loses.
Canelo can blame him for moving up in weight to 175. Finally, Canelo can take the fight from under Benavidez’s nose for sweet revenge.
