You can add Dmitry Bivol’s name to the seemingly growing list of experts who are in no way ruling out a Terence Crawford win over Canelo Alvarez. The fight is set to go down in September as we know, in Las Vegas, and Bivol – who scored a clear decision win over Canelo a few years back, this in a fight that took place up at light heavyweight – says he thinks “Bud” has the skills to win the fight.
Speaking with The Ring, Bivol, the current unified champ at 175 pounds, said he bumped into Crawford a while back and he was surprised to see how big Crawford was.
“My first reaction, of course, was about the size of Crawford. Is it okay for him to move up two weight classes or not?” Bivol said when talking about when the Canelo-Crawford fight was first announced. “But then I saw him in Dubai maybe a month ago. I thought, ‘he’s big.’ He has very good skills. He’s one of my favourite boxers. He’s able to win this fight. But there are a lot of small things which we don’t know. We don’t know how he will deal with it. He needs to get used to the power and pressure of [fighting at] 168 pounds because it’s a big difference, to be honest. Maybe he will get used to it and how he’ll be feeling. But he’s able. He has good skills. He’s awkward and can use both hands. It gives him benefits.”
In some ways, perhaps Bivol, with his, let’s face it, schooling of Canelo, laid down a blueprint Crawford might be able to use against the Mexican star in September. If Crawford is going to pull this off, it will almost certainly be via a decision win. Crawford, 41-0(31) is the better boxer of the two, although Canelo has skills of his own, no doubt, and we have seen Canelo outboxed before (by Floyd Mayweather).
But that size difference is such a big deal for some fans, who feel Canelo, 62-2-2(39) will simply be far too big, too heavy, and too strong on the night. The official weigh-in, when it comes, promises to be fascinating, that’s for sure. If Canelo and Crawford were pound-for-pound the same size, Crawford would win the fight. But, as people are fond of saying, there are weight divisions for a reason. Canelo, with his power, strength and aggression, may be able to wipe out an early Crawford lead by scoring a late stoppage win. But there are some good judges out there who feel Crawford will be able to box his way to a close decision win.
Bivol, like so many of us, is looking forward to this super-fight, and in a big way. Maybe we will be treated to a superb chess match type of a fight in September. As this one gets closer and closer, the anticipation of us seeing something special could reach a real high.
