Six months after becoming the first undisputed super middleweight champion of the four-belt era, Alvarez moved back up to 175 pounds for the first time since claiming the WBC title via knockout from Sergey Kovalev in 2019. But during the same week he teased a possible future move to heavyweight, Alvarez was unable to break through the technical strength of Bivol, a former Russian amateur star whose strength is muting the offense of his opponents. He barely any star power in the UK, let alone globally. The big question mark was whether 'Sweethands' could deliver enough power to stop Canelo in his tracks. Bivol allowed Alvarez to stand at close range in front of him but never gave him a clean enough strike zone to land upon. I think it'll be a close competitive fight. “We’ll see what happens but I do believe we’re really close to making these fights happen. Between Benavidez and some names who could come up from 160, there seem easier and possibly bigger fights to make at the weight Canelo prefers right now, rather than going up to 175 (or a catch) to fight the Beterbiev-Browne winner or Bivol.
The 168lbs scene will need to start from scratch this year, but has the talent to do so with the likes of David Benavidez eyeing chances to earn the belts that Alvarez may well vacate, should he opt to remain at light-heavy going forward. Morrell is also 23 years old, and while skilled, we’d be talking a pretty monstrous sixth professional fight for him, jumping up in competition from the likes of Mike Gavronski and Mario Cazares to Canelo. But Smith is also fairly limited for a top level guy, and he does still have a bit of value not only as a titlist, but as the guy who retired Bernard Hopkins, even if that was nearly five years ago now. “This doesn’t end in this way, I’m a very competitive person, I’ve got many years ahead of me and I’m gonna come back stronger,” Canelo said. The unbeaten Billy Joe Saunders tried and got a broken eye socket as a result, but Plant will feel like he has a shot at stopping the Mexican, too. Alvarez said things got heated after Plant spoke about his opponent's mother. A potential fight with Plant in September could provide Canelo with a chance to become the undisputed champion at 168 pounds, should he emerge victorious against both Yildirim and Saunders, of course.
It was discussed that in September he would face former WBC super-middleweight champion, David Benavidez. David Morrell Jr: The reason to include Morrell (5-0, 4 KO) is that the WBA could make an order that Canelo must face their “world” “champion,” the secondary (“regular”) titlist. As it stands, the division is stacked with a host of world champions who are all in their primes-Dmitry Bivol (WBA), Artur Beterbiev (WBC, IBF) and Joe Smith Jr. (WBO). Beterbiev looked human at times in his March win over Adam Deines, and does not have an easy fight coming next, as he faces mandatory challenger Marcus Browne on Dec. 17 in Montreal. Beterbiev and Smith are both power punchers. He’s a mauler, a bruiser, and has real power. Canelo and Murata had serious talks in early 2020, which collapsed, but there was real interest there. If nothing goes wrong against Davis next weekend, he’s a real contender to land the fight. It all goes down from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday night. Subscribe to Morning Kombat with Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell for the best analysis and in-depth news, including instant analysis to Bivol's shocking win over Alvarez on Saturday night below.
But what's just as true as those things is none of the foes Plant has encountered have been on nearly the level of what he'll see in front of him Saturday night. Anthony Dirrell, who for me is a champion who did not have a great run, somewhat mediocre at 168 pounds,” he added. Plant fought skillfully and showed great heart to climb off the canvas in the penultimate round after Canelo had downed him with a left hook and uppercut combination. You can watch extended, 38-minute long, Canelo vs Plant highlights (opens in new tab) of every round for free on YouTube or head over to your boxing channel as listed below. Fury will be the favorite, for good reason, but Usyk has proven the incredible footwork and boxing skills that led him to supremacy at cruiserweight also make him an elite heavyweight. While it was never beyond the realms of possibility - particularly as Usyk is, by nature, a cruiserweight - those ambitions have been checked for now. In the process, he caught the attention of former cruiserweight king and now heavyweight world champion Oleksandr Usyk. Stating the obvious, a fight against Usyk will be the biggest challenge of Canelo’s illustrious career.