Entire Audience Was Shocked by Canelo’s Punch! The most Brutal Fight of Canelo Alvarez career! – FULL VIDEO BELOW
Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, the best pound for pound boxer in the world, has been handed a boxing lesson and a rare defeat by Dmitry Bivol in Las Vegas on Sunday.
Alvarez, the first unified super-middleweight champion, stepped up a class to light heavyweight to fight Russian Bivol on a weekend of celebration for Alvarez’ Mexican nation, and was humbled – the three judges giving the same 115-113 score for Bivol after 12 enthralling rounds.
It was only Alvarez’ second loss in 61 fights after turning professional at the age of 15 and winning his first world title six years later. He had previously tasted defeat against only Floyd Mayweather.
The unanimous decision appeared very much correct; Bivol moving through the gears from the middle rounds onwards to put in a dominant performance in which his accuracy was matched by his pitch-perfect fight plan.
Bivol, taller, heavier and with a greater reach, looked utterly unfazed by Alvarez’s increasingly desperate attacks, and, despite provocation from his opponent, refused to enter into a risky war. Instead, Bivol threw crisp combinations, landed the cleaner punches, and danced away mostly untouched.
His face was unmarked afterwards while Alvarez, frustrated throughout the second part of the fight as he attempted to land the punch which may have changed the course of it, looked reddened, his forehead swollen and his expression one of frustration.
The four division world champion had definitely met his match and this probably turns the potential heavyweight fight against Oleksandr Usyk talked about in the lead up to this bout into a mere dream.
“I proved myself today,” Bivol said in the ring afterwards.
“He’s a great champion, I respect him,” he said of Alvarez.
Asked why he believed he could beat the more fancied Mexican, one of the most popular fighters in the world, Bivol said: “If you don’t believe in yourself what do you do? You achieve nothing. You should believe in yourself and you’ll achieve what you want.
“This is the biggest fight of my career and I enjoyed this fight.”
Fighting in front of former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and on the weekend of Cinco de Mayo, which celebrates a great victory for the Mexican army against the French Empire in 1862, Bivol proved a great party pooper.
Bivol, who moves to 20-0 as a professional, is one of the biggest opponents Alvarez has faced but while Alvarez appeared to have more single-punch power, Bivol had better footwork and speed and threw better combinations.
“You have to accept it, that’s boxing,” Alvarez said. “He’s a great champion, I have no excuses.
“He’s a really good fighter – he comes in and goes out. I felt his power, it was a good victory for him.”
Asked whether he would like a rematch against Bivol, Alvarez said: “Of course, yes. It doesn’t end like this.”
Bivol, who retained his WBA light heavyweight world title, said: “No problem. Let’s talk about a rematch.”
But after watching Alvarez fail to find a solution to the puzzle that is Bivol, the world may not feel a great need to see it happen again.
As the man said, that’s boxing. Alvarez appears far better suited to operating closer to his own weight class and his adoring audience may demand it.
