People are trying to discredit Bivol’s win by saying that was he beat a smaller man and while Size does give you an advantage it was only a small factor. The real factor was the simple fact that Bivol is a much better fighter than Canelo and has the ability to out achieve Canelo if he stays commit and dares to be great. Just look at Callum Smith and you’ll see that you need a lot more than size to defeat Canelo.
It's his defense, distance control, ring IQ and his punches to Canelo's face. When you punch Canelo's face enough times, he'll get discouraged.
Not in my case; The size can't be discounted here, but it took (takes) a level of quality to really make the size work in the bigger man's favor.
The size helped, but his footwork did a lot. Every time Canelo would plant, Bivol moved laterally or hopped back then moved laterally, Or he'd fall all the way in/elite guard up and push Canelo back. He refused to concede range/that was beautiful
@Austinboxing I've already debunked this "he was bigger than me" narrative in previous posts. Bivol was marginally bigger in size. He was obviously taller. In summary. 168lber Bivol weighed 183lbs fight night Canelo weighed 178lbs-180lbs (this is from both fighter's mouths in interviews), a weight hed be near fight night when he was weighing in at 168lbs (Canelo was weighing 174lbs fight night when he was at 154lbs). This is all backed up with concrete evidence as well. Only when Canelo loses to a more skilled opponent is the opponent "bigger". Callum Smith was not too big, despite being 6ft 3 (easily looks like he could be a big LHW if not a Cruiser) and rumoured to weigh 190lbs + fight night. Plant was not too big, despite being 1 Inch taller than Bivol and looking the same size if not bigger than Bivol. Kovalev was not too big, despite having a larger frame than Bivol and known to rehydrate more than him. Yeah that narrative is just ridiculous. Canelo got absolutely schooled by far superior boxer than him. So called P4P king barely won 1 round clean, at home, with thousands of fans behind him, deck stacked, with knowledge the judges will have his back so all he'll have to do is throw a few punches now and then
Bivol’s size had little to do with it (he’s naturally bigger of course). The distance control was the crux of it all. Look at how many times Canelo falls short with his punches in rd 1 alone. That hasn’t happened to him in years. He had to start rushing (jab jab stutter steps before big right hand). Bivol just controlled distance and made Canelo have to explode to get to him while Bivol would shoot the jab for points doing little else. By rd 5 as Bivol has mentioned in interviews, the fight had changed and Canelo was tired.
Bivol’s obviously just way better, but Canelo looked like a child in the ring. Bivol was just too big to be affected by Canelo’s punches
