Tim Bradley says WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol has the talent and the style to beat Canelo Alvarez but he can’t let the fight be close when they meet on May 7th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Bradley feels that Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs) will need to put on a boxing clinic to get a decision win against the highly popular Canelo (57-1-2, 39 KOs), who has been the recipient of a handful of decisions that many believe should have gone the other way.
Canelo and Bivol will be headlining on DAZN PPV on May 7th. If Canelo wins, he’ll potentially face Gennadiy Golovkin on September 16th.
Golovkin will need to win his April 9th fight against Ryota Murata to ensure that he meets Canelo in September in their long-awaited trilogy fight.
Canelo will have a harder task than Golovkin trying to get to the September fight because Bivol is in the prime of his career, and he has the style, chin, and power to win, assuming the judges don’t score the fight oddly.
Bivol can beat Canelo
“He has a really good chance of beating Canelo, but it can’t be close. That’s the thing,” said Tim Bradley to Fighthype. “If it’s close, Canelo is going to get the nod. We know that Canelo is going to try and put on the pressure, and walk down Bivol.
“Bivol’s inside game is not that great, not prolific in any way, but his footwork on the outside, his movement, his jab, that’s one thing that frustrates a counter puncher,” said Bradley.
Bivol might be a guy that is all wrong for Canelo in the same way that Floyd Mayweather dominated the Mexican star in 2013.
The Russian fighter Bivol has a lot of the same elements to his game that Mayweather frustrated Canelo with nine years ago.
Like Mayweather, Bivol moves well, possesses a nice jab, great defense, and enough power to keep Canelo from walking him down without regard to his own safety.
“When they get hit in the face with the jab, they got to reset,” said Bradley. “Whatever you were thinking of doing, ‘Bop,’ you got to go back to the drawing board. If he can keep his feet moving and not let Canelo pressure him and get him on the ropes and do what Canelo does, I think he has a really good chance of beating him.
“I’ve said in the past that if there’s going to be someone that beats him, it’s going to be this guy,” said Bradley about Bivol. “It’s going to be Bivol. If there’s a guy that is going to beat him, it’s going to be Bivol.
“David [Benavidez], I believe, is a tough fight [for Canelo]. I’ve also said that too. I’ve said that it’s a tough fight, but I would favor Canelo because David is there to be hit. Canelo doesn’t like guys that move and he has to cut off the ring and track them down.
“That can probably be a little bit contradictory there because when he fought Billy Joe Saunders, he moved around the whole night and he was able to cut him off. But it’s the way you move, it’s about being set to punch.
“When you go and look at the GGG fight, GGG will move subtlety back to the side, use his jab and he will counter punch effectively. When he uses his jab, he kept Canelo at bay and was having success,” Bradley said.
It would be a shame if Bivol was on the receiving end of a controversial decision against Canelo, as it would make the Mexican star look pampered, and it wouldn’t be good for the venue. This is the same place where Gennady Golovkin fought Canelo, and in both fights, the boxing public felt that the Kazakhstan fighter was robbed by the Nevada judges.
Bradley: Bivol has to put on a clinic
“It’s also how you move. Not just running around the ring and trying to get some space,” Bradley said. “It’s a subtle movement here, ‘Bop, bop, bop,’ and subtle movement here, ‘Bop, bop, bop,’ and making Canelo miss and making him pay because you know those hooks are coming. That’s what he specializes in.
“Those left hooks, hand feints he does, and he uses that high guard trap a lot, a lot, a lot. So, I think Bivol will be okay figuring that out, punching him in between that target.
“Yeah,” said Bradley when asked if Bivol will make it the 12 rounds against Canelo. “I don’t know how it’s going to be, but what I am saying is if it is close, Canelo is going to win the fight. I think Bivol has to put on a boxing clinic, literally make it a boxing clinic, and make Canelo miss and make him pay as often as he possibly can.
“He has the punching power to hurt Canelo. It’s a lot. There are so many factors that you can take in. You can take in that Bivol hasn’t been active enough. You can put that in the bag.
“Canelo has been actively fighting, the most active champion out there, the undisputed out there. The fact that he’s faced big guys, he’s been in the ring with big guys. He’s used to the power now, he understands what he can and cannot do.
“You got to take that into account, and you got to take into account that it’s Canelo and how mentally strong he is to go along with that skill. He has a certain aura about him. So you got to take that into account too.
Canelo picked the hardest fight
“It’s a great fight. Bivol is a bad boy, and if he beats and dominated Bivol, you got to give him respect. This is a big guy that can box and punch, and he comes from that old school style of boxing,” said Bradley about Bivol.
“I thought he picked the hardest fight,” Bradley said about Canelo choosing what he felt was the hardest fight in picking Bivol. “I was completely surprised. It just tells you that Canelo is about legacy, but the money too, but this dude is about legacy.
“He’s chasing legacy. He wants to be Mexico’s greatest, and immortality. Immortal. When he dies out, his name will still resonate with the fans and in boxing in general.
“He’s on a course for that because I think what he’s doing is he’s going to kill two birds with one stone. He’s going to fight GGG. He’s going to fight this fight and if he gets through this fight, he’s going to fight GGG.
Canelo targeting Beterbiev-Smith winner
“He’s going to take care of that. ‘He didn’t win’ and all that stuff by stopping GGG. Then he’s going to get a belt at 175, which makes a lot of sense. Then he’ll fight the winner of [Artur Beterbiev vs. Joe Smith Jr] for the undisputed [light heavyweight] championship.
“If you’ve got a guy that has won two undisputed championships back to back, oh my God. Oh yeah,” said Bradley when asked if Canelo will fight Beterbiev.
“He does fight in straight lines but he’s tough and he’s durable and he can take a punch. I don’t know if he can take Canelo’s punch, but I know he can take a punch.
“I see him [Canelo] possibly doing that [taking on the Beterbiev vs. Smith Jr. winner] or maybe waiting a little while to wait and see if he can see any kind of slippage maybe, and then taking on that fight.
“That is the case but just judging by GGG’s last performance and seeing him slowly deteriorating, late in fights, he’s getting hit more often.
“I think Canelo is on a different level, and I think Canelo has his number now. He knows what he has to do.
“He has to pressure him, put him on his backfoot, avoid the jab, counterpunch, go to his body just as he did before. The weakness is still there, there’s no doubt about it,” said Bradley.
