Dmitry Bivol dominated Canelo Alvarez from start to finish to pull a huge upset on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
Bivol retained his WBA light heavyweight belt by unanimous decision after all three judges scored the bout at T-Mobile Arena 115-113 in his favor.
It was Alvarez’s second lost of his career and first since Floyd Mayweather beat him in 2013.
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“I’m sorry I ruined your plans [for a fall trilogy fight against] Gennadiy Golovkin, maybe,” Bivol said. “Congrats to [Alvarez], he’s a great champion and I respect him. But if you don’t believe in yourself, what do you do? You won’t achieve anything. I believe and my team believes.”
Bivol’s jab kept Alvarez in check all fight long. Alvarez tried to get inside and work on Bivol’s body, but with the jab being so effective he couldn’t get inside and didn’t seem to have a backup plan for Bivol.
“I felt his power. As you can see from my arm, he beat my arm up but not my head,” Bivol said. “It’s better. He had a good speed and power. Maybe his mistake was he threw only hard punches. After hard punches, he relaxed and tired.
“He’s a great champion. Sometimes in boxing, you win or lose. I lost today and he won,” Alvarez said. “He’s a really good fighter. He’s a fighter who comes in and goes out. I also felt his power. It was a good victory for him.”
After the fight, Alvarez expressed his desire to wanting a rematch to which Bivol is down for that.
“A rematch? No problem. Let’s talk about a rematch,” Bivol said. “I took this fight because I just wanted the opportunity and I appreciate the opportunity. I am ready for the rematch, I just want to make sure I win and am treated like a champion now.”