Respect to both Bivol and Canelo

So the people who always complain about boxers not challenging themselves are crapping on a boxer for challenging himself?

Is that about right?

 

I’d move on to other things if I was Canelo. You can always fight him down the road if you want.

 

huge mistake
Might as-well give the people what they want & fight Benevidez - I guess he doesn’t want to risk losing the Mexican crown idk.

 

It might be stupid, but as a boxing fan, I can only praise fighters who challenge themselves.

 

Respect to both for wanting to fight at their opponent's best weight, and wanting to challenge for titles in a different weight class.

For Bivol, I can understand where he is coming from. He already beat Canelo at 175 and has little to gain and a lot to lose to give Canelo another shot at his titles. He is willing to drop down to 168, which shouldn't be too hard for him to do, as he's a small LHW, and to fight Canelo to become Undisputed at SMW. But then if Bivol loses at 168, the drain birds will come out, and to an extent rightly so. At the same time, this isn't a situation where Canelo is trying to drain Bivol, so you couldn't accuse Canelo of wanting Bivol to be drained. In fact, Canelo doesn't want that because he wants full credit if he wins.

It's a weird situation and I can't remember one like this where both fighters refuse to take the easy way to victory, and instead insist on putting themselves at weight disadvantages to seek full credit and win more titles rather than defend their own.

I don't know what the solution is here and I think Eddie Hearn is going to have a difficult time making this fight. I have some ideas. Maybe they could agree to two more fights, one at 175 and one at 168. That way Canelo gets his chance to beat Bivol at 175 with no excuses, and win or lose, then Bivol would get his chance to capture SMW Undisputed.

Some have said that Sulaimán wouldn't let Bivol challenge for the WBC Title, so Bivol wouldn't be able to become Undisputed even if Canelo agreed to fight him at 168. I'm not sure about that, I know he said that about Bivol and Beterbiev at 175 (which is disappointing) but I don't know if he would take the same stance on a 168 Fight. I doubt Bivol would fight Canelo at 168 unless all the titles are on the line.

Ideally Bivol would fight Beterbiev first, the winner Unifies 175 then the winner fights Canelo for Undisputed at 175. If Bivol were to beat Beterbiev then perhaps he could fight Canelo at 168 for both the SMW and LHW Undisputed in the same fight which would be historic. And I think that would be enticing to Canelo to not only win another 175 Title but for an opportunity to be Undisputed at LHW. But since Bivol and Beterbiev doesn't seem like it's going to happen, then maybe they could do a rematch at 175, then (regardless of outcome) have a 3rd fight at 168 (for both SMW Undisputed and for Bivol's 175 Title).

If Canelo beats Bivol at 175, then it makes more sense for him to return the favor and fight Bivol in a 3rd fight at 168, because then if he beats Bivol twice in a row, once at 175 and then again at 168 no one could complain that Canelo didn't beat Bivol at his best. If Canelo loses again at 175, but is competitive, then a 3rd fight at 168 is still intriguing, and no one could criticize Canelo for not fighting Bivol at his best.

So I think if they are going to fight at 168, it needs to be for all the SMW TItles, and possibly also for Bivol's 175 Title. But I think Bivol should agree to a rematch at 175 first, as there was a rematch clause in the original agreement which hasn't been honored. Then win or lose, it would set up a 3rd fight at 168 for all the Titles and possibly Bivol's 175 Title as well.

As a side note, if they can't agree to terms, and if Canelo really wants to take the toughest fight possible outside of Bivol, it's definitely vs Beterbiev at 175. I think Canelo and Beterbiev would be a war. Yes Canelo would be in danger of being hurt or stopped far more than Bivol, but on the other hand, Canelo has a great chin and if Beterbiev isn't able to stop Canelo, then Canelo has a much better chance of outboxing Beterbiev and winning a decision than he does against Bivol, if he can survive 12 rounds against Artur that is, which would be fun to see.

 

ROFL No its actually because Canelo thought he was being clever going to 175 for Bivol But he got spanked LOL Now I doubt Canelo can make 168 any more . Bivol is the A side Ginger he dictates the rules now because he spanked your ginger ass But GOOD!!!!!! Get to the end of the line

 

Well look who's surfaced again the Novel writing Shadow Where ya been Shad ?? C'mon you can tell us

 

Life, and needed to recharge my boxing batteries. Also while I kept my eye on the forum, often it became boring with many of the same arguments we've had a million times being argued in the same way over and over again. Now there's something to talk about with the king of boxing returning last night, so it's the perfect time to return and talk about something fun and new for a change.

 

I'm biased towards Canelo but since Bivol put the belts up at 175 Canelo should afford him the same opportunity at 168. Plus I'd love to see them fight at 168. I think Bivol would beat him again at 175 but I think Canelo still gets it done at 168.

 

King Canelo now huh LOL Don't forget a young man named Dmitry Bivol spanked his ginger ass but GOOD!!!! Canelo's NOT king he's just an alsoran commoner now lol

 

Bivol stylistically is a bad matchup for Canelo.

Canelo has never been very good at hunting guys down and bringing the fight to them.

Hunting guys down is Beterbievs bread and butter.

I am not sure Bivol will be able to withstand Beterbievs onslaught.

 

He isn’t Bivol’s at any weight, just a terrible style match up, he has no path to victory IMHO.

 

at 168 Canelo doesn't have the corrupt WBC protecting him since Sulaimon said he wouldn't sanction the bout. Canelo might not get his 3 round headstart.

 

To be fair Canelo never gave an excuse about the fight being at 175 when he clearly lost and lost wide to Bivol.

I just think Big Red knows if he can make it look a little more competitive he will sack the judges based on the horrible scorecards from the first fight

 

He was far more competitive than you're making it out to be. Yes he clearly lost but how wide he lost is debatable. We've been over this before, but how wide a fight is, well it's a matter of opinion.

With Canelo Ryder, for example, some thought Ryder won 4 or 5 rounds, others say he only won 1 or 2 rounds. Well which is it? For years Mayweather fanboys kept saying he shutout Canelo 12-0 as if that was real. Most of the time you can tell when fans who don't like a certain fighter tend to exaggerate their scoring. There's really no need to exaggerate and claim Bivol was more one-sided than it really was. We all know what happened. Canelo won anywhere from 1 to 5 rounds, but no more than 5, because Bivol clearly won 7 rounds. The judges giving Canelo 5 rounds you could say that was generous, but not unreasonable. At the same time, to say Bivol won wide, i.e. he won 11 rounds, or even 10 rounds, is generous to Bivol. The consensus from the fans seemed to be about 9-3ish. 8-4, 9-3, 10-2, all reasonable scores. But there was no doubt who won.

So I suggest sticking to the "Bivol won clearly" story rather than the "Bivol won wide" story. And the distinction is important because fighters who are competitive in a losing effort should be respected. It's disrespectful to just crap on a fighter who came to fight and produced an entertaining fight. Like Ryder for example, there's no need to humiliate Ryder and act like he didn't belong in the ring with Canelo. It was fairly one-sided at times, but it was still a great fight and Ryder had his moments. Canelo Bivol was fairly one-sided at times also, but the difference is that Canelo was never hurt, while Ryder was a bloody mess, was knocked down once, then again later in the fight but it was ruled a slip. That's all that really needs to be said in fights like that. There's no need to exaggerate the scoring or humiliate a fighter who lost but who went the distance. We don't have to agree with the judges, but I maintain that they should be respected far more than they are.