I saw some people say, that Canelo didn't look as good against Bivol, as he was against Plant, claiming that he was slower and had a worse gastank, because of the 7lbs extra weight to go up one weight division. My question here is, if Canelo rehydrates to about 180lbs in many of his fights, how can one say that the extra weight hurt Canelo, when he is about the same weight, after he rehydrates, in the Plant and Bivol fights? The only difference would be, that he would have to cut 7 extra pounds (which could drain him even more), but the fight night weight would stay the same. Personally I think this was the best Canelo we could possibly get at 168/175lbs, but Bivol was just too much. What do you guys think?
I think he was never a hige middleweight. And he went up to SMW and now LHW. It was bound to hit him sooner or later there are weight classed for a reason.
Khan made Canelo look stupid at times because of his speed, Canelo couldn`t get through Bivol`s high guard, most of his shots just bounced off Bivol`s arms and gloves.
I think Bivol's smart jab and movement was the difference. Need to see the rematch. That will tell us all we need to know.
See my post below there's marginal difference between Canelo at 168 and at 175lbs. Where he would weigh near enough the same fight night for both, except at 175lb he is not cutting that much weight compared to 168lbs: The only thing different would be how much Bivol will be able to rehydrate at 168lbs. I suspect Canelo's team will try and secure a rehydration clause this time round (by offering him more money). They thought they cherrypicked the right guy, turns out it wssnt ripe enough... now they're gonna have to stack the deck
Assuming he weighed the same. He fought a much lower pace vs Kovalev. A boxing pace. He tried to fight Bivol like he did Golovkin II, but started gassing by rd 4 and barely mustered 492punches (threw 620 in Golovkin II). I think Canelo at his best is around 169lbs give or take (I believe that was how much he rehydrated for the Jacobs fight). Canelo was not stocky vs Golovkin II and Jacobs. In Golovkin I, where he also had stamina problems, he was very burly and broad. My guess is too much power training, weight-lifting etc, not enough boxing training. Too much mass seems to be the obvious issue for Canelo, in my eyes.
I know it would have been at 168, but watching Bivol's performance solidifies my long held belief that Calzaghe would have won a UD against Canelo.
I think he mistimed his PED cycle and either peaked too soon or overtrained. Holyfield had that problem too.
He didn't look good against Plant he looked like the one dimensional bum that he is Plant didn't even come to win just survive which he did.
When things aren't going your way and when what you're usually doing isn't working and you can't find an answer, and you know you're in with a real one who is full of self-belief and is unaffected by anything you do, and it dawns on you that there's a very real possibility you might lose, your gas tanks will deplete faster from the nervous energy of all that. You could see this from Clen's body language after a few rounds. He realized very quickly that tonight was going to be different and that he was in for a very hard nights work.
