Yeah... those casuals are hilarious aren't they? Because two persistent and vicious body punchers in Zurdo Ramirez and Canelo Alvarez had great success!!! Oh wait.... Only a casual would fancy David Benavidez as some unbeatable monster, after not stopping a guy that Canelo brutally KO'd, and ragdolling a glass jawed Middleweight. Bivol humiliates Benavidez.
Or you could just rob them through partial, Corrupt judging in favor of the more marketable domestic boxer?
I am a fan of Benavidez and rank him very highly, but the notion that he breaks apart Bivol is asinine. And stop with this casual nonsense. This is a boxing forum. Hardly anyone here could be called a casual. But don't expect everyone to share your idiotic opinion. To beat Bivol you need to be awkward and throw him off his great rhythm. Which is easier said than done, because he's very disciplined, very fast, makes few mistakes and altogether has a high IQ.
If you see Bivol as a 'basic euro fighter' you dksab IMO. His defensive stats are stellar, his distance management is elite, and usually his combinations are fluid, and he is heavier handed than many think - Benavides himself is on record saying that Bivol hits plenty hard enough. I think his recent issue is that actively trying to manufacture a KO is not part of his normal gameplan - the recent fight with Arthur showed that a fighter looking to survive with defensive smarts is not going to pull Bivol too far from his gameplan into making mistakes. One thing I am most interested to see, is that up until now, Bivol has managed to to coast by on having his "Plan A" executed to AAA+ standard, and not needing a Plan B. That's what I'm most interested to see if/when Bivol & Beterbiev get it on:- 1) Is Bivols "Plan A" enough to deal with the relentless pressure of Beterbiev? I don't believe it is 2) Can Bivol make the necessary adjustments when Plan A is not working? Those are the big questions IMO - but up until now, Bivol has never needed to deviate from Plan A, which IMO shows how good he is at executing it.
not much to add to some of the excellent analysis above. just that....think Bivol is a damned fine fighter. am a Benavidez fan....but think Bivol would win on points here. thinking he will remain undefeated for a while. everything that he does he does very well. he fights his fight and no one has gotten around it yet.
I"m thinking that at LHW a guy like Dwight Qawi would walk through his punches and rough him up on the ropes. I think that's the technique that could win.....absorb his punches, show no fear, rough him up.