I wonder if the fact...over looked by many perhaps......that Bivol.....and amazing the ref didn't do something about it.....kept punching Canelo. He did it in every round...punched him and punched him. It was a real disgrace to the sweet science. All that punching that Bivol was doing ...just repeatedly hitting the gingerman in the head.....that probably made him "not feel 100 per cent during the fight."
Not unusual for a fighter to say he thinks he won after losing a close decision. The argument that he won would be that he landed the harder punches, blocked and slipped a lot of punches, was never hurt or knocked down. Of course we don't agree with that as it was pretty clear that he lost. Fighters aren't seeing the fight from a fan point of view. They have a much different perspective of the fight than we do. Canelo surely felt like he imposed his will on Bivol to a certain extent, but you can't really criticize a fighter for saying he thought he did enough to win even if he didn't. Canelo has been in many tough fights in his career and in the close tough fights he's been in he's pulled most of them out and won a number of close decisions, so this is a very new experience for him to taste defeat by decision.