Many punters will have headed over to bet365 Sport this weekend to have a bet on Saul Canelo Alvarez to beat his latest opponent, Light Heavyweight world champion Dmitri Bivol.
However, if you were one of those that tried to buy money given the big odds on price that was available for Canelo in this fight, then you’ll be licking your wounds like the Mexican today after Dmitri Bivol secured a shock victory in that fight.
It was a result that sent shockwaves through the world of boxing, and it was not so much the fact that Bivol won, but the margin of his victory that was the really surprising aspect of the bout.
The judges may have all scored the bout 115-113 in favour of Bivol, but in truth, the Russian won far more comfortably than that, with most boxing fans having Bivol as the winner by at least six rounds, if not eight.
So what is next for the Mexican superstar, who ahead of this fight was rated as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world by most experts?
Before we examine that, let’s first take a look at what went wrong for Canelo on the night and why Bivol was able to secure such a stunning and comprehensive victory.
Canelo v Bivol – Fight Overview
Given that this fight was at the upper-end of Canelo’s preferred weights, Light Heavyweight, the Mexican was always likely to be the smaller man in the fight against the rangy Russian and so it proved.
Inexplicably, the judges awarded the first four rounds of the fight to Canelo, but from where I was watching, at best the Mexican won just one of the opening four rounds as he struggled to get close to his opponent.
Bivol used his feet, movement and his jab to great effect to counter the Mexican when he moved forward and he was landing the scoring punches in the opening exchanges of the fight. Canelo threw a lot of leather, but little was connecting clean, while Bivol was having much more success in picking off his opponent with his jab and quick combinations.
After the fourth round, which in many people’s view was the first Canelo won, many expected the Mexican to barrage his opponent.
That never happened. Bivol used his natural physical strengths and advantages to dominate the fight and while his tactics were simplistic, they were enough for him to keep picking up the rounds and to keep Canelo at bay.
In truth, in moving up to Light Heavyweight, Canelo had over-reached himself. The usually dynamic star looked slow, lethargic and towards the end of the fight, the extra weight he carried seemed to sap more power from his punches that adding extra venom to them.
Judges Scorecard Controversy
However, despite being announced the winner, there was huge controversy over how the fight had been scored.
All three judges had Canelo winning the first four rounds, when many felt Bivol led 3-1. In fact, heading into the final round, had Canelo won the round, he’d have gained an undeserved tie in the bout.
There have already been calls to change the judging format and the WBA will have a few questions to answer about how such a one-sided bout could have been judged far more evenly than the evidence showed.
It’s not the first time Canelo has seemingly had the judges on his side. In his only other defeat to Floyd Mayweather, one judge scored the contest 114-114, despite Mayweather’s dominance, while many experts feel Canelo was extremely fortunate to get the decisions of a draw and then a subsequent win in both his bouts against Gennady Golovkin.
So, after this defeat saw Canelo’s career record move to (57-2-2), what is next for the Mexican superstar? There appear to be three possible options.
What Is Next For Canelo?
The first option is one that Canelo himself stated that he was interested in taking after the fight and that is for an immediate rematch against Bivol.
The contract for the fight stipulated that Canelo would get a rematch if he wanted and in the interviews following the bout, Canelo indicated that this was something he wanted to do.
However, many boxing fans feel that a rematch would not be a good idea, especially given how dominant Bivol was in the fight, using his natural height, reach and power advantage to tame the Mexican.
Indeed, with the hard-hitting Artur Beterbiev the IBF, WBO and WBC Champions at this weight, who has knocked out all 17 of his opponents, many feel Canelo should not move up to this weight category again and risk tarnishing his legacy further.
That may also rule out a potentially mooted contest against Oleksandr Usyk at 201lbs, the lower limit for a heavyweight bout. Assuming of course Usyk is successful in defending his titles against Anthony Joshua in a couple of months’ time.
That looked the longest odds of the three options open now to Canelo and after the defeat at the weekend, that contest looks dead in the water at the moment.
A third option could be the most lucrative and, for Canelo, most likely for him to land a win and that is to take another rematch with the now 40-year-old Gennady Golovkin at super-middleweight.
Not only is this a more natural weight for Canelo to fight at, it is a fight that many people would want to see after the first two fights were so controversial, with many claiming that Golovkin was robbed in both.
It is also the fight that would perhaps generate the most interest in the key Pay Per View market in the United States and beyond, as Canelo has been for some time their biggest draw and a rematch against Golovkin has been top of many boxing fans future fight lists for some time now.
For Dimitri Bivol, a rematch is a possibility, but he has little to prove against Canelo again and the Russian may want to face his compatriot Beterbiev to see who is the better of the two Light Heavyweights and could potentially unify the division.
It is going to be interesting to see what both boxers decide their next move should be over the next month or so in what is proving to be a fantastic year for boxing across the world.
