Dmitry Bivol shocked the world Saturday night in Las Vegas, scoring a unanimous decision victory over Canelo Alvarez.
All three judges scored the bout 115-113 for the Russian. However the scorecards weren’t without controversy as each of the judges submitted some highly questionable scores, especially in the early stages of the fight.
In the end though, Bivol managed to run his record to 20-0 (11 KOs) as he successfully defended his light heavyweight title for a 9th time. The 31 year old was the more active of the two boxers, both throwing (710 to 495) and landing (152 to 84) more punches throughout the contest.
Bivol successfully used his height and reach advantage to keep Alvarez off balance from the opening bell. The Russian threw nearly twice as many jabs in the contest, as the two fighters threw (292 to 266) and landed (106 to 74, both in favour of Bivol) a similar number of power punches on the night.
Following his victory Bivol quipped “Eddie Hearn, sorry I broke your plans with Gennadiy Golovkin.” A reference to the fact that a long awaited trilogy bout between GGG and Alvarez was previously scheduled for September 17th.
However Alvarez has indicated he plans to exercise the rematch clause in his contract and set up another contest between himself and the light heavyweight champion instead.
Alvarez currently holds all four world titles at 168 pounds, but appeared to reach his limit when squaring off against the best that the 175lbs division had to offer. The Mexican boxer’s record now falls to 57-2-2 overall, after suffering his first defeat in 9 years. Alvarez’s last loss came against Floyd Mayweather back in 2013 as a 23 year old.
Despite being the current champion and fighting at his natural weight, Bivol opened up as a 4:1 underdog at many sportsbooks heading into the match.
Details surrounding any potential rematch between Bivol and Alvarez have yet to be discussed. However based on Canelo’s post fight comments, he’ll be looking to get back into the ring sooner rather than later.
In turn that means fans will have to wait just a little bit longer before getting the third instalment of the highly anticipated GGG vs. Canelo trilogy.