Canelo Alvarez (57-1-2, 39 KOs) has quickly bulked up in the last four months to transform his frame into a heavily muscled light heavyweight to challenge WBA 175lb champion Dmitry Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs) for their pay-per-view fight on DAZN on May 7th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Canelo is packing on the muscle with the hopes that it’ll help him deal with the natural size Bivol. It’s a gamble on Canelo’s part because he’s going to lose speed, and that’s one of his best assets.
If he gasses out in this fight due to all the useless muscle he’s packed on, there are going to be a lot of boxing fans second-guessing his decision to bulk up.
Canelo has a history of gassing out when fighting quality opposition, which could be a problem for him now with the added muscle weight that he’s added to his short 5’8″ frame.
Packing on that much size would make sense if Canelo were fighting a stationary fighter at light heavyweight like Joe Smith Jr, but NOT Bivol, who moves like a cheetah around the ring.
Against a fighter like that, it’s not a good idea to bulk up too much. Right now, Canelo looks like a T-14 Armata tank, carrying too much size for his limited height.
Promoter Eddie Hearn posted pictures of Canelo working out this week with trainer Eddy Reynoso, and it’s shocking how much muscle the Mexican star has added to his 5’8″ frame since his 11th round knockout win over Caleb Plant last November in Las Vegas.
With his new bulked-out appearance, you can argue that Canelo looks bigger than Bivol, who is a natural light heavyweight. Canelo’s ability to transform his physique so quickly is uncanny and quite impressive.
We’ll have to see whether the added muscle that Canelo has packed onto his frame will help him in the fight or it’ll be a hindrance against the fleet-footed Bivol. In looking at Canelo workout videos from this week, he looks a little slower than he was for his last fight against IBF 168-lb champion Plant.
That could spell trouble for the Mexican star because he’s going to need footspeed to cut off the ring on Bivol. It’s not going to work for Canelo if he gasses out.
Canelo will need to be able to move around the ring to catch up to Bivol, but whether he’ll be able to do that is unknown given how big he’s looking.
