Canelo Alvarez admits that his “Heart hurts” after his crushing loss to WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol last Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
For Canelo (57-2-2, 39 KOs, the defeat appears to have mentally affected him more than his previous loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013 because of the way Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs) thoroughly outboxed him from start to finish.
In contrast to Canelo’s loss to Floyd when he was only 22-years-old, he looked old, sluggish, and overmatched in the technical skills department by the little-known Bivol.
The way that Bivol beat Canelo, it essentially closes the door on his dreams of becoming the undisputed champion at 175.
After the way Bivol handled Canelo with ease, it would be a crime for the Mexican star to take on IBF/WBC light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev or WBO champion Joe Smith Jr. next year for the four belts at 175.
Beterbiev would likely have finished Canelo in the fifth round had he been inside the ring with the Mexican star last Saturday. In the fifth round, Bivol trapped Canelo against the ropes and unloaded with a storm of headshots, most of which landed.
I counted seven blistting headshots from Bivol in that flurry, and when he was done, Canelo looked like a glutton for punishment when he half-heartedly motioned for him to continue pasting him with shots.
“My heart hurts, it hurts a lot, but I want to tell you that in this life he who doesn’t take risks, doesn’t have goals, never gets anything done,” said Canelo Alvarez in a speech after his defeat against Dmitry Bivol last Saturday.
“If you are afraid to lose, you become nothing in life. I want to let you know this will only make me stronger; you can only imagine what’s coming,” said Canelo.
“First of all, I’m happy he lost,” said Stephen A. Smith to ESPN, expressing gladness about Canelo Alvarez’s loss to Dmitry Bivol. “He’s a great, great fighter, and I got him as the best in the world.
“He got outboxed thoroughly by Bivol last Saturday, but nobody wanted to see that fight. We don’t care. It’s about fights that we want to see.
“I think Canelo should fight David Benavidez or Jermall Charlo. Charlo might be a little too small since Canelo moved up to light heavyweight to take this fight, and I don’t see him fighting too much in the super middleweight division.
“I’m tired of this guy being unblemished in his career and these big fights Charlo is not getting. He deserves them, and he should have them if he wants them. Even if I wouldn’t pick him against Canelo, he deserves the shot that he wants.
“But this kid David Benavidez is special, and if there’s a kid that deserves to be in the ring with Canelo Alvarez, that would absolutely positively box office, that would be a fight everyone would want to see. Benavidez is the real deal.
“I love Benavidez, and he deserves a fight of this magnitude as well,” said Stephen A.
