Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez v Dmitry Bivol - 7th May 2022

[Master]

Before the biggest fight of his career, Dmitry Bivol has admitted he spoke to Hall of Fame trainer and analyst Teddy Atlas.

The Russian - now 20-0 - overcame Canelo Alvarez on points with all three judges scoring it 115-113 in favour of him although it was much more comfortable than the scorecards suggested.

Following the win, Bivol and his team paid tribute to Atlas for some of the tactics he provided them.
On his podcast The Fight, Atlas - famous for working with Michael Moorer and Mike Tyson - revealed what exactly was said prior to the Cinco de Mayo clash.

"About a week before the fight, the manager called me and asked about the possibility of giving a little talking to him and even possibly being out there but that didn't obviously come to fruition," said Atlas. "I had a facetime phone call with the fighter, the manager, and the trainer. I just saw a good person. "I have always felt something for the underdog, for the person who was up against a little extra. And he was up against a little extra as nobody was for this guy, everybody was for the golden goose, the anointed one.

"The Bivol camp were the ones up against it, no one was looking out for them. It's a lonely sport anyway, you get in the ring and all that matters is that you take care of what you need to take care of cause nobody else can get in the ring with you. "I spoke to him, and they knew what they were doing. It would be ludicrous to try to think that I did anything other than verifying things they already worked on for their camp and knew what was going to be productive for them and possible for them.

"The jab was going to be the key, the jab and the legs. Maybe not the quick legs and the ability to move with Bivol but the slow legs. I thought that's why he lost the fight to Mayweather. His hands may have not been too slow, but his legs were too slow to close gaps.

"I said if I was Canelo's trainer, I would say to him, 'you can't win this fight without your jab'. And everybody is thinking power punches, and hooks to the body and right hands, and the right uppercut. But that was my feeling, if he doesn't use his jab then he's going to be very beatable."

As Atlas predicted, the jab became the key in the fight right from the first round as Bivol continuously flicked out his left hand in order to maintain the distance between the fighters. It troubled Canelo and didn't allow him to get into his rhythm to the extent that the Mexican only landed 10 jabs all fight compared to Bivol who landed nine in round one alone. "I pointed out I watched on tape you go back in straight sometimes two or three steps, and you can't do that with Canelo" the boxing commentator continued.

"You go back two or three steps you're still on the path to the punch. "He doubles his jab and follows you with the right hand then you're in the path for him and he will track you down and catch you. You go back and then off to the side or move your head and counter punch, but don't keep going back straight.

"And it's funny because as I'm watching the fight, I did see a moment where he went back straight to or three steps and it looked like Canelo was on to him and he doubled the jab. "I don't know if he landed or just missed with the right hand but after that I noticed Bivol correct it. I don't know if it had anything to do with me, probably not, but he went back and then went off to the side.

"The other thing I said is he's got to jab and got to jab at the right place and time and distance because if you jab from too close, he's gonna counter you with a right hand and he's very good at timing fighters and very good at countering fighters. "There's two ways to really take away a man's jab, one is with your own jab which I thought Canelo needed to do. The other is by countering right hands over the opponent's jab so he's hesitant to jab because he could get hurt"

It seemed as though all the advice Bivol took on from Atlas was well-received as he implemented the game plan perfectly to dismantle the pound for pound superstar and propelled his name onto the global stage. Yet despite all the technical advice, Atlas believed it was this last bit of mental advice that really sunk into the mindset of the champion.

"I said to him if I've learnt anything in my long career, it's that there is no superman, you can get intimated but there is no superman. There is no S painted on anyone's chest. "And I said he is what he is, he's a good fighter but so are you. He was very alert listening, very respectful when I said this. I could just see the way he was tuning into it," added Atlas.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/boxi...105ee900b4e75b

[Master]

Dmitry Bivol is still waiting to be paid following his shock victory over Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.

And he admits that he does not know when the money will arrive in his bank account.

The Russian upset the odds to beat the Mexican superstar pretty much punch for punch for large parts of their Las Vegas clash before being awarded the victory by a two-round margin.

But Bivol, who reportedly agreed a £4m fight purse, has revealed he is yet to receive the fee due to sanctions imposed on Russia following the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Bivol told the TASS news agency: “I was willing to earn a lot less just to get this fight.

“I needed this fight, it was the No.1 task. I think it’s very difficult [to be paid]. I haven’t faced this challenge yet because it hasn’t arrived yet.

“We are still thinking about how to do it. We didn’t think ahead because the situation is changing rapidly. I didn’t even think about it and said to my manager: Vadim [Kornilov], come on, this will be your headache’.”

Canelo Alvarez, 31, has a rematch clause in his contract and hinted that he could trigger it to fight Bivol next.

But the unbeaten 175lb champ isn’t sure if there will be a sequel as he insisted that the thought hasn’t even crossed his mind as of right now.

Bivol added: “I have a clause in my contract, according to which I am obliged to give Alvarez a rematch.

“We did not prescribe the conditions in advance, and this is good, I don’t even think about future plans now.

“Before each fight, I tune in and think that this is my last fight. Yes, there are some vague plans, but I am always in the mood as if this is the last fight.”

Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, who promotes both boxers, believes there are only two options out there for Canelo – including a trilogy fight with Gennady Golovkin.

During a recent appearance on The DAZN Boxing Show, he said: “There’s two clear options now. One is to have the undisputed fight at 168, the trilogy with Gennady Golovkin, and then rematch Dmitry Bivol, because let me tell you, there is no way he is not rematching Dmitry Bivol. Or you go straight into the Dmitry Bivol fight.

“You go back to the GGG fight, before the Bivol fight when we were talking about Canelo-GGG it was, like, ‘That’s an easy fight for Canelo now,’ and you feel like if Canelo Alvarez would’ve beaten Bivol, he would’ve been a huge favorite going into that fight.

“Now, remarkably, there are question marks over Canelo Alvarez. ‘Could GGG beat him in the trilogy?’ That fight becomes a bit more competitive.

“This week is moving week for us to sit down with Saul and Eddy Reynoso and say, ‘What do we want to do?’

“Personally, I’m happy with either. The GGG fight is still probably the biggest fight in boxing. The Bivol fight is so dangerous, so tricky – Canelo would go into the Bivol fight an underdog for the first time in his career.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/boxi...0e65f39183e3da

[X]

Smart move by Bivol.

He has just spent months playing second fiddle to the 'A side', was written off, nobody in the press was interested in him, he was the champ but was treated as the challenger, he was cheated on the cards ...... but he still did whatever he wanted with Saul, dominated him and ruined his big plans.

Why not put the fear of god into Alvarez by saying he could easily go down to SMW and do exactly the same thing to him, ruining his pretensions of GOATness and taking away the excuse that size mattered. go for it, Dimitry.

[TIC]

it would be a boss move for dmitry to fight the rematch with canelo at one sixty eight & try to take all the hardware

[Master]

THE pay-per-view buys for Canelo Alvarez's unsuccessful return to light-heayweight have been revealed.

Former pound-for-pound king Canelo suffered a unanimous decision defeat in his bid to dethrone WBA light-heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol earlier this month.

But the Mexican's attempt to become a two-time 175lb champion wasn't as much of a box-office success as some of his previous fights.

According to boxing reporter Dan Rafael, the fight generated 520,000 buys in the United States - where it was being broadcast by DAZN.

Although over half a million fight fans purchased Canelo vs Bivol, that number paled in comparison to the pay-per-view buys for the future hall-of-famer's showdown with Caleb Plant last November.

A whopping 800,000 people parted with their hard-earned cash to see Canelo unify the super-middleweight division.

The disparity in pay-per-view buys isn't a surprise given that slick striker Bivol is a relative unknown to casual boxing fans.

The reported numbers for Canelo's failed bid to become a two-time 175lb champ come just days after Eddie Hearn hit out at rival promoter Leonard Ellerbe for claiming the fight was a PPV flop.

He told Pro Boxing Fans: "If I don’t know what I’m doing, why am I 100 times bigger than Leonard Ellerbe?

“Why are we the biggest global promotional company in the world bar none?

"And Leonard Ellerbe is not even relevant actually in the boxing industry.

“When you talk about the top promoters in the world, do you mention Leonard Ellerbe? Let’s be honest, not in a millions years.

“He then comes out and says, 'Oh, Canelo Alvarez only done 300,000 [pay-per-view] buys.’

"Double it and add more and that’s how many buys [it did] and if you want, speak to DAZN and they’ll confirm it as well.

“This guy is hilarious. He is so angry, he has lost his mind. I need to take him out for a nice cup of tea, Leonard Ellerbe."

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/18642...ivol-ppv-buys/

[Spicoli]

Dazn Stateside burned a lot of loyal subs with the shady ppv bs and many running into complications simply completing the order. Saw Hearn..of course..ranting about the number reported was doubled in reality . And Charlo v Castano II peaked at 800k viewers, their largest viewership in 3 years.