Was Bivol a cherry pick gone wrong for Canelo ?

No. Bivol had very good and proven record. I stated prior to fight Bivol would be tough test and could see Bivol out boxing Canelo and being robbed by the judges. Americans just underrated Bivol he not well known to them.

Credit to Canelo for fighting the two best SMWs in Smith and BJS then taking the best LHW that styliscally is all wrong for him. Canelo could played it safe and had very easy fights against the likes Benevidez and Charlo but opted for the much tougher challenge in Bivol.

 

Canelo and his trainer Reynoso thought Bivol was a cherry pick for them.

They saw Bivol struggled against Richards and thought they could easily beat him. (I also thought so).

But Bivol proved he was more than that.

 

Hearn thought he was a cherry, going by his remarks after the fight.
There had already been an attempted robbery against him 2 fights prior, with Richards, which was insanely close at 2 cards. One extra round and that had been a split draw instead of the 117-111 or 118-110 it was in reality. After that Bivol was dominant but not extremely impressive against Salamov, which probably added to the confidence.
So I really think they thought they would get away with robbing him when the fight didn't go according to plan, certainly with Bivol being Russian. But they didn't seem to expect Bivol being almost as dominant as against his prior two opponents.

So, combined with the knowledge Bivol isn't a huge puncher, somewhat of a cherrypick. Knowing he was good, but thinking they could edge it one way or another.

 

Not cherry pick, but Bivol wasn't yet big mainstream fighter so casual fans didn't know how good he was.

 

Hearn cherrypicked him after seeing him in his last few fights, he even admitted it

 

Absolutely. People that deny this don't seem to get that nothing is ever a given when they cherry pick, there's always the risk you lose, the point is they do things to maximize the chance of winning instead of just taking on the biggest challenges like they pretend.

As soon as he chose Bivol over Beterbiev, especially after his trainer talked about fighting Beterbiev, they were obviously selecting the perceived weaker champion.

Not only was Bivol a less powerful puncher than many 175r champs and contenders, he was the smallest of all of them. And that helped Canelo avoid being KO'd in this fight. Because if Beterbiev was landing like that, Canelo would have been destroyed.

 

If it was then Alvarez' team are clearly in the wrong business. The very fact that some of the posters on here thought that Alvarez would comfortably beat Bivol left me absolutely gobsmacked.

You also had some posters arguing it was a close fight.. It wasn't. Un-fooking-believable.

 

If a lot of people on this forum were aware of just how good and how much of a threat Bivol really was, I’m pretty sure that Canelo and his team who work in professional boxing for a living had a fair idea too.
Cant see how anyone could think it was a cherry pick. Bivol is a top fighter in the division, possibly THE top fighter.

 

@Mr Applebee yes, but when you have great achievements and when people applaud you a lot, you are in power intoxication. You are deluded that you are superior to everyone else.

Reynoso and Canelo thought they had cosmic powers and that they could beat anyone.

Whole Canelo team looked ridiculous in their pink tracksuits, in Bivol match. And Canelo also wore pink shorts. They wore that color on purpose that they saw the Bivol match as child's play. It's a good thing that Bivol woke them up from their delusion. Bad for Golovkin though.

 

Nope, bivol and beterbiev are the 2 hardest fights out there for canelo. Only casuals dont know who either is.

 

Benavides would beat him bad or stop him. I think he was a high tech cherry pick gone wrong. He was banking on Bivol being like his last two apponents but it didn't work out that way. Bivol went the distance with a boxer that Callum Smith stopped which gave the Canelo camp the green light to fight him. Oops.

 

Relative to Charlo, Andrade, Benavidez and a 40 year old GGG at SMW, no.

Relative to the physically bigger KO artist unified LHW champ Beterbiev (who is also much older and probably carrying a lot more wear, thus advantageous to age and wear out further) yes.

 

Bieterbiev and Bivol are two top dog at 175. Not sure I would call that a cherry pick.

 

It was and it went wrong as I predicted.