By: Sean Crose
It may not come down as the all-time great light heavyweight battle. This is not Spinks-Qawi, or Greb-Tunney. However, it was a fight that left the boxing world reeling. In Las Vegas on Saturday night, Dmitry Bivol secured his WBA light heavyweight belt by defeating the most famous and dominant boxer on the planet, Canelo Alvarez. Of course things don’t turn out this way. Canelo is expected to win a challenging but manageable match before going on to face arch rival Gennady Golovkin in the fall. However, expect to die in boxing. An entire sport can be a graveyard of expectations.
While it certainly wasn’t the death knell for his career, the loss was certainly a blow for Canelo, who seems to be quite comfortable jumping up and down from weight class to weight class. other. For example, Canelo’s previous fight was a super middleweight match between him and Caleb Plant. Canelo won that fight of course just as he has won every fight since losing to the young Floyd Mayweather nearly a decade ago. However, this is definitely not Canelo’s night. This is an evening completely owned by Bivol.
As this is a fighter that Canelo cannot effectively knock down or defeat. Here’s a fighter who slipped between the ropes with a straight-to-center tactic that helped him maintain range and fire impressive combos. There were even a few times when Canelo looked really hurt. He doesn’t, at least not really, but by the end of the battle, Canelo’s face looks puffy and defiantly defeated. The redhead star has had many great nights… this simply isn’t one of them. The unanimous decision given to Bivol after the final bell was fair and justifiable.
