Exclusive: Canelo Alvarez can 'reinvent himself' against Dmitry Bivol
- Joe Hewlett
- 30 May 2022
Canelo Alvarez is likely to have a second fight against Dmitry Bivol in 2023 after accepting an offer to fight Gennadiy Golovkin.
The Mexican will collide with Golovkin for a third time following their two fights in 2017 and 2018.
Canelo - who controversially earned a draw in their first fight - won their rematch via majority decision.
The pair will collide one more time on September 17 for Canelo's four super middleweight titles.
While it's a fight that makes sense for Canelo with GGG at the age of 40, some were surprised that he didn't have an instant rematch against Bivol.
Former world champion-turned-analyst Johnny Nelson reviewed the fight and believes that Canelo can produce a different performance should they meet next year again.
"(He) stepped out of his lane. He went in there with a live opponent at a bigger weight and got exposed for not being big enough and good enough for that level," Nelson exclusively told Planet Sport.
"Canelo Alvarez is a dog, he's a wicked fighter but he came up against somebody that was fresh, hungry, ambitious, bigger, and successful.
"And I'd say Canelo Alvarez didn't box on form, I've seen him box better. So, was it complacency? Or was it the fact that Bivol was able to subdue whatever Alvarez brought.
"Either way, in the rematch I'm quite sure we will see a different performance from Alvarez, I'm not saying he'll win, but what I'm saying is he can reinvent himself like he did with GGG in their second fight," Nelson continued.
"I didn't think he could do anymore after the first fight, but then in the second fight he came out and totally blew my mind.
"So don't write him off and at the end of the day if that's his ceiling in regard to how far he goes in regard to stepping more up the weights then you still got to give him credit in what he achieves and how he fights."
Asked if they could fight at 168lbs rather than 175lbs at light heavyweight, Nelson added: "Yeah Bivol's even said that, he said he's happy to come down and do it at 168.
"So again would it be Canelo's pride to say 'I want to do this at a bigger weight, 175, I wanna step up there and do it at a bigger weight' just to prove it to get it in the record books. So, it could happen at 168."
