Via Jim Calfa: Canelo Alvarez’s powerful punches bruised the left arm of WBA lightweight champion Dmitry Bivol last Saturday night, but they couldn’t stop him from winning the unanimous decision in Round 12 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
You can’t blame Canelo (57-2-2, 39 KOs) for using Bivol’s arm attack strategy to injure them to the point of being useless against him, as he was already beaten by the human boxer. Russia overtakes from the very beginning.
During Canelo’s fight with Callum Smith, he aimed for the British boxer’s left arm, but by the end of the skirmish it was severely swollen. Smith covered like a tenacious partner against the ropes for the entire fight, making it easy for Canelo to land shots to his left arm.
Canelo was too tired to have a proper teamfight, and he was lucky Bivol didn’t make it past the knockouts in the second half of the match. In the fifth inning was when things got out of hand for Canelo as Bivol knocked it down with a barrage of shots.
Canelo looked helpless while pinned to the rope, trying to dodge the storm of shots but did a terrible job. If Bivol continues to throw those balls, he will surely knock out Canelo in the second half of the match.
Eddie Hearn said: “It was easy to say the latter, but not many people said it before.” Against TV Hub when asked if it was a ‘bridge too far’ for Canelo Alvarez against WBA lightweight champion Dmitry Bivol.
“There were a lot of people in the boxing world who felt it was going to be a really tough fight, and some even picked Dmitry Bivol,” Hearn continued. “But we can’t stand here now and say, ‘Oh, that’s too far a bridge.’
“If we had had this conversation yesterday, we would have said that he [Canelo] was a great favorite, which he used to be. We don’t know if it was a little bit of Saul’s fatigue or the weight, I don’t know.
“Does he have a good camp? I don’t know, but let’s not ignore the brilliance of Dmitry Bivol. He is absolutely a perfect punch.
“I think of the victory over Craig Richards and soon the victory over Lenin Castillo; you wouldn’t necessarily look at him and think he had a performance like that of him in the 1 pound-for-pound match. [Canelo].
