Dmitry Bivol Shocks the Boxing World and Upsets Canelo Alvarez!
In a challenging, but uncalled for prizefight, undisputed super middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (57-2-2, 39 KO’s) jumped up in weight to duel super WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol (20-0, 11 KO’s). Despite the seemingly daunting task, Bivol provided twelve rounds of one-sided action and defeated Alvarez by way of unanimous decision. The match was the first for the redhead after beating Caleb Plant to become undisputed at 168.
Rather than fight Bivol, which no one was talking about, there was great interest in seeing Canelo face two-time super middleweight WBC champion David Benavidez. Aside from Benavidez there have been consistent calls for Alvarez to test his might against middleweight champion Jermall Charlo (WBC) and Demetrius Andrade (WBO), yet these fights have been ignored as well. Although the match with Bivol was lightyears better than the tentatively planned showdown between Canelo, 31, and WBC cruiserweight champion Ilunga Mkabu. Perhaps Team Canelo will look at this as a grave mistake.
Obviously the victory is a huge boost for Bivol. The 31-year-old now has the attention of the whole boxing world shining on his shoulders. It will be interesting to see how a rematch goes. Both fighters stated that they are ready and eager to immediately run it back.
ONE-SIDED ACTION
Bivol established early control in the bout by drowning Canelo in a river of jabs. While most were blocked, they effectively prevented the redhead from gaining any kind of momentum. Bivol became a bit more fluid and regular with his combination in the second. Nothing changed in the third. To this point in the match Canelo was relegated to throwing big single, winging shots here and there. Even worse, most of his offense was being caught on the arms or gloves.
The only time that Canelo had anything that could be called consistent success is when Bivol voluntarily laid his back on the ropes. Yet, this did not happen all that often. To show his lack of available answers, Canelo’s best tactic by the sixth round was languishing on the ropes himself in hopes that Bivol would get sloppy in his attack. Bivol did not. The ninth was by far the best round for Canelo. Yet that was more due to Bivol taking the round off.
The success did not last long as Alvarez did nothing more than slip punches, eat punches and lay on the ropes in the tenth. Undeniably frustrated, the redhead devoured a pair of left hooks in the final minute of the eleventh that both bothered and irritated the super middleweight champion. In a must-win final round, Canelo was dominated, hammered and pushed around the ring for the entire last period. The redhead fought back, but he was spent and exclusively throwing arm punches. Thankfully, the judges got it right when they ruled Bivol on top by way 115-113 on all three scorecards.
Reading Time: 3 minutes
By: Bakari Simpson
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