Jamel Herring thinks Canelo Alvarez may choose to move up to 175 to challenge Artur Beterbiev for his undisputed title after watching his lackluster performance against Dmitry Bivol last Saturday night in Riyadh.
Herring says Beterbiev (21-0, 20 KOs) didn’t look like the monster he used to be, getting knocked out during the fight before eventually pulling away to win a 12-round majority decision. The results have not been well received by many fans, who insist that Bivol should have won.
Canelo Will Be Confident
Herring thinks Canelo will be more confident after watching that fight. He saw that Beterbiev was looking slow, not throwing many punches and coming close to defeating Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs).
Jamel believes that Canelo may want to go for a fight to add to his history. He previously discussed wanting to fight Bivol in a rematch to avenge his 12-round decision loss against him on May 7, 2022.
If the Honorable Turki Alalshikh is open to letting Canelo in before the Beterbiev-Bivol rematch, he could face Beterbiev next for all the gold. The winner of the Canelo vs. Beterbiev can face Bivol if he wants.
That would make things more interesting to the public than seeing a quick rematch between Bivol and Beterbiev because we just saw them fight, and we know how the second bout will play out. In other words, Bivol will move more, hit, throw faster combinations, and possibly catch more.
Is Beterbiev Slowing Down?
Bivol will not want to fight with Beterbiev in the second fight because he showed last Saturday that he cannot take his power. On the 12th, Bivol held more to effectively reduce Beterbiev’s attack. Canelo won’t fight like that with Beterbiev because he’s a big deal and he’ll make the fans happy, even if it means getting beat up.
“I thought about it after the fight because I thought Beterbiev was maybe slowing down a little bit,” said Jamel Herring at Fighthype when asked if Canelo Alvarez could challenge Artur Beterbiev for his uncontested light heavyweight title.
“Let’s be real. Fighters see that, and that can be a weakness. “So maybe Canelo is playing with the idea, especially if it’s the idea that he can’t be challenged in another weight class,” said Herring.
Canelo isn’t the only one who will fancy his chances against Beterbiev. We have heard that Anthony Yarde and Edgar Berlanga want to fight Beterbiev now. Those are just two words. More than that will want to fight him now because he didn’t look good, as well as Bivol, who held the pressure in the later part of the fight.
“We’re seeing a lot of undisputed fighters not in one weight class, but multiple weight classes,” Herring said. “Therefore, I saw more historical impetus for Canelo to flirt with the idea of entering another undisputed team against the aging Beterbiev if he doesn’t take the Bivol fight in a rematch.”
Canelo can throw his hat in the ring right now, and Turki might be willing to give him the next Beterbiev fight. He had to say something right now, though, because if he waited, it would be too late. Turki will have already stopped the Beterbiev vs. Bivol.
“I think the action hurt Canelo a lot in their fight [with Bivol],” Herring said. “Beterbiev fights at a certain speed sometimes. That would be bad. Canelo has one of the best chins in the game. You have a defense. I think Canelo can play with this idea. This guy is not the Superman we thought he was. Bivol is just a monster in his own right. It’s not like Beterbiev is down. “
Beterbiev couldn’t afford the first five rounds against Canelo like he did against Bivol. If Beterbiev is going to take time to get Canelo mentally, he’ll have to do it a lot faster than he did against Bivol because he’ll be too far behind to catch up.
“Sometimes fighters feel like, ‘Okay, you’re ready for that.’ I think Bivol said Canelo is hitting hard [than Beterbiev]. Yes, fighters accept that. ‘Maybe, I hit harder than him,’ and I go from there,” Herring said of Canelo possibly looking at Beterbiev now, thinking he can beat him.
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