By: Sean Crose
“It may not go down as an all time great light heavyweight battle,” I wrote after the struggle. “This wasn’t Spinks-Qawi, or Greb-Tunney. What it was however was a fight that sent the world of boxing reeling.” Sure sufficient, WBA gentle heavyweight titlist Dmitry Bivol had simply defeated the good Canelo Alvarez. “Things were not supposed to work out this way of course,” I went on. “Canelo was expected to win a challenging yet manageable bout before moving on to face arch rival Gennady Golovkin in the fall. Expectations die in boxing, however. The entire sport can be an expectation graveyard.”
While Canelo did certainly go on to face and dominate Golovkin in a 3rd struggle in September, his spring defeat on the gloved fingers of Bivol continues to be resonating on the daybreak of 2023. Although Canelo had been defeated by Floyd Mayweather in 2013 and had acquired some questionable resolution wins in opposition to Erislandy Lara and Golovkin respectively, the purple haired star seemed to be in his absolute prime earlier than heading in direction of the ring to reply the bell in opposition to Bivol that Las Vegas night time final May. He had beforehand crushed Caleb Plan and earlier than that Billy Joe Saunders. Good competitors would come Canelo’s manner, and that competitors would fall. That was not, nevertheless, to be the case with Bivol.
While it’s true that Bivol entered the struggle the naturally larger man it was additionally true that the 19-0 Russian had a easy but sensible plan with which to cope with the bold Canelo. For starters, Bivol put a robust jab to make use of, successfully preserving Canelo from getting in vary. Bivol additionally tossed off stinging combos, making it appear at occasions as if Canelo would possibly truly be harm (one thing followers had by no means seen). Equally telling was the truth that Canelo merely couldn’t break his man down as he usually did in opposition to opponents. Ultimately, Bivol was too large, too sturdy, too sharp, and had too good a plan to permit the legendary Canelo to get the very best of him.
While the 57-1-2 Canelo was identified to be a decide’s darling, he couldn’t persuade the judges that night that he had defeated and even drawn with Bivol. The defending titlist walked out of the ring that night time with the WBA title nonetheless in his possession. And Canelo? Well, it’s laborious to fault a person for failing at an bold quest from which he clearly gave his all. Other fighters needs to be extra like him.
