I'll take Canelo by KO. I'm not saying Bivol hasn't got the goods, he's a good light heavy but he's very wide with his punches and likes to fight at his own pace and can be caught going straight back sometimes. He might not have been ready for that shot at the bell by Joe Smith, but it shows he can be wobbled. He recovered well for the next round, but his legs were jelly and against a good finisher with time, I don't think he'll be given that chance. I think he's a bit more dynamic than Beterbiev and not quite as stiff. That being said, I still think he's going to get caught with a counter he doesn't see and his corner will throw in the towel before too much damage is done.

Barring a KO, Bivols not winning a decision... not against Canelo. There will always be at least one judge that sees it 121-96 in favor if Canelo. Add this cancel culture nonsense on top of that and no way a Russian fighter will get anything in his favor on a world stage. It was a tactic that the clique-y teenage whiners brought to social media before the pandemic and now its been inflated to a global scale since, and is being used in war and international conflict and competition... how embarrassing. "I don't like you so we're gonna tell everyone you're not a nice person and everyone is going to out of their way to act like they ignore you to show how they good they are by attacking you and your views.." "Its not enough for you not to do the thing I don't like, you have to attack the people doing what I don't like..." Imagine being an athlete who has trained your whole life for something and then being told you can't compete because people are in their feelings about what your country/ancestors/ people that are the same skin color/ gender/ religion, etc did and where from 2 seconds ago to thousands of years ago. Whatever happened to the good old days when if someone had a problem with you directly, they stepped to you and went out on their feet or on their ass? or even filed a lawsuit (where you both had something to lose if you were wrong) Large scale tattling and shit-talking has become a way for people to get other people fight their battles for them. Mike Tyson was right, the internet made people too comfortable talking crap about people without getting punched in the face for it.

Klitchsko should know better. If you want to fight for your country, that's great. but there are people on both side of that border in harms way. Neither of which has to do with Bivol being able to fight Canelo.