Roy Jones Jr has urged Mexican superstar Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez to avoid facing one fighter in particular.
Canelo is just weeks away from putting his unified WBC, WBA and WBO super middleweight titles on the line against IBF champion William Scull, as he bids to become a two-time undisputed champion at 168lbs.
Should he come through his bout against Scull unscathed, the 34-year-old from Guadalajara, Mexico will go on to face fellow pound-for-pound great Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford in a ‘mega fight’ later this year.
With what is expected to be a huge 12 month period for the Mexican icon, retired four-weight world champion Jones believes Canelo should do his utmost to avoid going toe-to-toe with a certain world champion.
Speaking to Boxing Social, Jones was asked whether the Mexican great should consider a rematch with newly crowned undisputed light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol, who become just the second man to defeat him back in 2022, and he made his stance clear that Canelo should stay well clear of the Russian at 175lbs.
“No [he shouldn’t rematch Bivol at 175], if its at 168 yeah, he looks good at 168 so if you wanna do it you gotta do it at 168 but not at 175.”
Bivol achieved a career long dream of becoming an undisputed world champion when he defeated Artur Beterbiev in their rematch on February 22 in Riyadh. The 34-year-old from Russia put on a stellar performance to get the better of his rival to set up a huge trilogy showdown, which is expected to happen later this year.
If the highly anticipated trilogy fight is to happen, however, it will not be for the undisputed crown after Bivol made the decision to vacate his WBC world title instead of facing WBC ‘Interim’ champion David Benavidez, who has now been elevated to full world champion in light of Bivol’s controversial decision.
