Bivol smashed his well-promoted opponent to smithereens. Shame on the boxing star!

On Saturday, October 12, two titled Russian boxers, Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev, will compete in the ring in Riyadh. BTR will defend the WBC, WBO and IBF championship belts, his opponent will defend the WBA Super and IBO titles. Bookmakers are ready to give a slight advantage to the native of Tokmak, although the success of his counterpart is unlikely to become a sensation.

Before Bivol’s confrontation with Mexican Saul Alvarez, bookmakers and experts were much more unanimous, blindly believing in Canelo’s triumph. But in the ring, Dmitry confidently dealt with the overrated star.

“It’s just the two of us”

By the beginning of 2022, Saul Alvarez was the undisputed leader of world boxing in the super middleweight division, which he rose to by taking all the titles from Kazakhstan’s Gennady Golovkin in the middle weight category. Canelo managed to defeat Sergey Kovalev, Callum Smith, Caleb Plant, Billy Joe Saunders and, having collected all the championship belts, thought about a new challenge. The choice fell on Russian Dmitry Bivol, who held the WBA world light heavyweight title.

Of course, Bivol could not be called a gift for any opponent. But bookmakers offered odds of 5.60 for his victory, while the most generous odds for the Mexican’s success were 1.24. There was a feeling that no one was expecting an equal fight here, and there was a certain logic here. Dmitry has not pleased fans with knockouts for a long time, and in the event of a judge’s decision, it seemed that, other things being equal, preference would be given to the much more promoted Canelo, whom experts, as well as some rivals, called “the best boxer in the world.” The Russian team was seriously worried that the American referees could prevent Bivol from winning, but the boxer himself was much more optimistic.

“It doesn’t matter who’s on his side, what matters is how I behave in the ring.” Reasoning in the context of “everything is coordinated or captured”… But what difference does it make, the two of us will remain in the ring. It doesn’t matter what happened to him before meeting me. I try to prepare myself for the fight with Canelo in the same way as for my previous fights. I don’t try to think that they choose someone, adjust them to themselves. It doesn’t matter! The main thing is that I will box with Canelo,” Bivol told Match TV.

“Never missed like that”

From the first seconds, Canelo tried to show who is boss here, although even before that, the fans did everything possible to make the Mexican feel at home in the United States. Saul took the center of the ring, worked as number one, but did not force events. Bivol was happy with this state of affairs; he was perfectly able to act on his opponent’s behalf, and besides, the Mexican did not show anything supernatural. Yes, he was active, attacked a lot, but the Russian boxer defended himself well, minimizing the risk to himself. Dmitry was helped by his superior size; theoretically, Alvarez could have gotten his way through speed, but he didn’t have any advantage in this component at the start.

Saul Alvarez and Dmitry Bivol / Photo: © Al Bello / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Visually, it seemed that Bivol hit the target even more often; judging by the judges’ notes, after three rounds the Russian actually had a minimal advantage. Saul’s fans were waiting for him to really get involved in the work, but they only waited for Bivol to turn on. Starting from the fourth round, the Russian began to increase his advantage; his series discouraged not only Canelo, but also the Mexican’s fans, who became slightly quieter.

The matter was moving towards a denouement, but Alvarez still couldn’t figure out how to surprise his opponent. The referee helped him as much as possible, at times unreasonably slowing down Bivol, but it was of little use. The Mexican needed a knockout, because, based on what was happening in the ring, even the American judges were hardly ready to give him a victory. The knockout did not happen, the Russian left his opponent no chance.

“We had the task of winning undeniably, so that the judges would not have the desire to rob us, and that’s what we did. I tried to win every round, and this is the result. I’m happy, the coach is happy. When we are happy, judges will not dare to rob us. I liked how everything worked out emotionally in the ring. My team’s composure brought us victory. Canelo is a high-level boxer, he has great body defense, I’ve never missed so many times. The goal was to hit a lot, but I didn’t expect such good defense. He has strong blows, he is a big star,” Match TV quoted Bivol as saying.

Canelo initially admitted defeat, but after a while he changed his shoes and began begging for revenge. Bivol’s team was not against earning extra money again, however, the matter never came to the specifics. The Mexican returned to his weight, where he continued to beat his competitors, while Dmitry, having defeated several opponents, prioritized the fight for the title of absolute champion with Artur Beterbiev.