Bivol surrendered to the level of Canelo Álvarez: “One of the best in the world”

The countdown to one of the most important confrontations in Saúl Canelo Alvarez's career began. A month after the fight, both he and Dmitry Bivol have intensified their preparation to arrive in the best conditions. While the Russian boxer has a slight advantage for fighting in the weight division that has dominated most of his career, he acknowledged that his opponent is one of the best in the world.

“First of all, he is one of the best fighters in the world and he makes him more confident and, secondly, he is a very experienced boxer,” he said before the microphones of the TUDN medium.

The extraordinary streak he demonstrated during 2021, when he won all the 168-pound belts, was enough to make him regarded as the best pound for pound, according to The Ring magazine. However, although it does not have the same reflectors, Bivol has been responsible for building a solid professional career that has brought more than half of the characters he has faced to the canvas, an area that gives him points in favor.

“This is the best time because I am 31 years old. I feel my body in good shape and I have enough experience to be a professional boxer,” he acknowledged.

The confidence he has shown is no wonder. Since its debut in November 2014, Bivol has starred in 19 fights. He has never touched the canvas and he has not known defeat. Its effectiveness when it comes to giving knockouts is 57.89%, since on 11 occasions it has won through chloroform. In addition, he has been the monarch of the World Boxing Association (WBA) for six years.

In fourth place in his history is a Mexican boxer, that is, Felipe Romero, a character he faced in August 2015 and against whom he won the silver title of the World Boxing Council (WBC) in the light heavyweight category. A year later he won the WBA interim title in the 175 pounds and, since then, he has made 10 successful defenses.

With the vast majority of the record in his favor, Bivol will expose his scepter for the eleventh time against a character who has already been champion of the light heavyweights. Unlike Sergey Kovalev, Canelo Alvarez will face a rival on a more equal footing. Both are the same age and have shown the enormous power in their gloves in each of the categories they have entered.

“You know, I don't think too much about the fight. I just have to do my job and what I have trained every day (...) When I heard from my coach that the fight was 100% against him (Canelo Álvarez), I was ready to listen to him. It's normal,” said Bivol confidently.

Contrary to expectations by various experts and fans, Canelo Álvarez refused to impose two clauses that would have given him a certain advantage over Dmitry Bivol. Firstly, he did not want to accept the condition of agreed weight, that is, that both boxers fulfilled an intermediate weight between the categories to enjoy the same chances of winning.

“Dmitry Bivol is not a huge 175. I would have accepted anything from 171 (pounds) onwards. We've had these conversations with Eddy Reynoso and Canelo, who said, 'No weight in between. If this is going to be for the 175 pound title it will be, '” said Eddie Hearn on The DAZN Big Show.

The other condition he denied was the rehydration clause. It consists in that a boxer cannot gain more than one pre-agreed weight, after having fulfilled the scale and before the fight, through the consumption of water. With these conditions, Canelo will seek to strike a coup of authority on May 7 when he tries to beat Bivol in his natural category.

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