Saul ‘Canelo‘ Alvarez has lost just twice in 66 fights, once to Floyd Mayweather and again to Dmitry Bivol.
The Mexican superstar was just 23 when he faced 36-year-old Mayweather in 2013. The fight took place at a catchweight of 152 pounds but was held for the super-welterweight championship.
Floyd was the clear victor on two scorecards – 117-111 and 116-112 – and the remaining 114-114, making it a majority decision win, was criticised for not reflected the older man’s dominance.
Fast forward nine years later and a period of supremacy in the super-middleweight ranks, Canelo made his second jump up to light-heavyweight after previously defeating Sergey Kovalev. He wasn’t to be successful this time around, with Bivol out-boxing him over twelve to take a unanimous decision.
Outside of the two defeats, the 34-year-old has beaten the likes of Gennady Golovkin, Billy Joe Saunders, Miguel Cotto, Amir Khan and Shane Mosley. The losses, though, still remain on his mind.
Speaking to Fight Hub TV, Canelo said that the most difficult fight comes down to size and size alone.
“I think both are similar, just Bivol is bigger so I think Bivol.”
In terms of which hurt the most, Alvarez told Cigar Talk that was Bivol as well.
“The Bivol fight bothers me more because I think I’m not 100% in that fight. I should stop it and take more time. At the end of the day everything happens for a reason. I learned a lesson that way and that’s it.”
While Canelo – currently unified champion at 168 pounds – has missed his chance to avenge the lost to ‘Money’ Mayweather, who retired in 2017 with a perfect 50-0 record, he may meet Bivol again.
In fact, it was recently the fight that was top of his list, but the Russian losing to Artur Beterbiev in their undisputed light-heavyweight contest puts it on the back burner. As Canelo plots his next move, Bivol rematches Beterbiev on February 22 next year.
