Bivol Rewrites History.
Though Canelo might be the greatest Mexican fighter ever, his loss to the world champion Dmitry Bivol, might be the most American of sometime - as it would appear greed, and ideas of being invincible might have fueled him to the roughest night of his career.
Bivol outboxed Canelo from start to finish, it was easier to find rounds Bivol won as opposed to rounds Canelo could’ve won. Canelo relied on his power, and a strong self belief that his power would hurt Bivol, a natural light heavyweight, who is big for the weight class.
The fight back as muted as the buzz for the fight, as the fight week promotion was next to nothing, for a DAZN PPV that Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano get a lot more of a push.
The end result left us with a lot of new questions. One of which is, did we just meet a new icon of boixng in Dmitry Bivol, the man who in Russian amateur boxing was always in Artur Beterbiev’s shadow, only to now have a chance to be the best of his era, can he live up to that?
Is Canelo too rich too care? It seems as though Canelo bought into his own immortality and wealth, and looked absolutely pissed as well as frustrated when Bivol refused to retreat from Canelo’s power shots which had been stopping the other giants of the division. Is it arrogance, naiveness, or just too much success for Canelo, but now one year after being the best fighter in the sport, Canelo now has to go through what Anthony Joshua is going through after losing to Usyk - can he come back, and at what weight?
A part of hopes they can contest a rematch at 168 lbs for all of Canelo’s belts as Bivol had talked about going down to fight Canelo at that weight in the past. Regardless, Bivol just ended the era of the unbeatable Canelo, as from this point on each person who fights Canelo, will no longer see him as the trending upward, cultural icon, but a beatable fighter with a name.
Boxing is a coldgame, and now Canelo’s and his team have had back-to-back high profile losses with Canelo and Oscar Valdez, so if they want to change something now should be the motivation.
When Canelo lost to Floyd he adapted aspects of Floyd’s style, when he seemingly lost to Golovkin, but it was called a draw, he became a puncher like Golovkin. What does Canelo become next after this loss.
Bivol changed his life, destiny and future with one fight as he becomes one of the greatest Russian boxers of all-time with this win.
undercard
A rather sleepy undercard occurred at the top of the bill of the pay-per-view card as Montana Love, a recent signee of Matchroom Boxing, dropped Gabriel Gollaz Valenzuela, only for Gollaz to drop Love in the second round. Rather than a fire fight, we saw two fighters who had a lot on the line, take turns exchange punches and not very excited to taste each others power. This really makes me question the ceiling of Love.
Welterweight Shakhram Giyasov dropped Christian Gomez, three times, but still got rocked in the bout as the fight looked like the same round on repeat. A good win for Giyasov, but I didn’t learn a ton.
Joselito Velazquez got a sixth round TKO over Jose Soto in a sneaky good flyweight fight.
Zhilei Zhang got a first-round KO over Scott Alexander, who took the fight on less than a week’s notice.
Lightweight prospect Marc Castro got a win. Castro is building his way up to some form of a developmental title. Castro will be solid once he gets to the top of the division.
The upset of the undercard, Aaron Silva stopped Alexis Espino, who is signed to Matchroom Boxing in a mild shocker.