Canelo

Russian ruins Alvarez' celebrations in Las Vegas by handing Mexican only the second loss of his career.

He has good speed and power but maybe he made a mistake – he threw only hard punches. Asked why he believed he could beat the more fancied Mexican, one of the most popular fighters in the world, Bivol said: “If you don’t believe in yourself what do you do? He beat my arms up, but not my head, which is better. Instead, Bivol threw crisp combinations, landed the cleaner punches, and danced away mostly untouched. You achieve nothing. “He’s a great champion, I respect him,” he said of Alvarez.

Round-by-round report: Canelo Álvarez and Dmitry Bivol meet in Las Vegas for the WBA light heavyweight title. Follow along with Bryan Armen Graham.

Álvarez and Bivol are due to make their ringwalks in a little under a half hour. The fighters have been given their final instructions and the seconds are out. Canelo lands a hook to the body but Bivol answers with a combination. Canelo lands a flush uppercut but Bivol takes it well. Bivol is really letting his hands go and Canelo is responding in kind. Álvarez continues to press the action, but can’t sustain an attack. He’s keeping Canelo at bay with deft footwork, ring intelligence and sheer size, not making the mistakes that Canelo lives to exploit. Bivol continues to stymie Canelo with his size, movement and rhythm. A nice comeback round for Álvarez. He traps Bivol along the ropes and lets his hands go, landing a lot of shots. Bivol is getting outboxed and outfought. Another clear round for Bivol, who is landing the cleaner and harder shots. And you all should believe in yourself to achieve what you want.”

Dmitri Bivol defended his WBA "super" light heavyweight title with an impressive unanimous decision victory over Canelo Alvarez.

10-9, Bivol. 118-110, Bivol. The 39-year-old from China drilled Alexander with a left hand in the opening round, and referee Robert Hoyle didn't bother to count. Round 1: Bivol was incredibly active with the jab, his best weapon. He rebounded nicely down the stretch with powerful right hand followed by a left hook to the body. He continues to find success at range with the jab, and he's reeling off combos that meet the mark. Finally, in the closing seconds of the frame, Alvarez broke through with a big right uppercut. Round 4: Canelo pressing hard but Bivol catching most of the shots on the gloves. The boxing acumen, footwork and size of Bivol proving to be a formidable challenge. Is the upset in the air? He was able to press Bivol on the ropes and landed a couple of solid body shots as the crowd roared, seemingly trying to cheer him to victory. Bivol looks fresh and continues to use his legs and jab to outbox Canelo. Alvarez running out of time. Round 11: Biggest round of the fight for Bivol, who blasts Alvarez with a bundle of power shots.

'Standing around getting punched': Boxing stunned by HUGE upset as Canelo cops second-ever loss.

“He comes in, goes out. He managed his distance really well. “I felt his power, you can see on my arm. “He’s a very good fighter,” Alvarez said. His only other defeat was to Floyd Mayweather at light middleweight in 2013. “He hurt my arm,” Bivol said, displaying a bruised upper arm that absorbed a string of punches.

Álvarez was outpunched over 12 rounds by the bigger Bivol, who stayed undefeated and found himself being asked for an immediate rematch.

Bivol responded in Round 10, spearing Álvarez’s body with a long left jab, and landing a short right late in the round. For Friday afternoon’s weigh-ins, a crowd of boxing fans, most of them Álvarez partisans, packed the plaza outside T-Mobile Arena. But the 31-year-old Bivol is a better tactical boxer than Kovalev, sturdy with a strong jab and sharp timing. Bivol responded with a flurry of lefts and rights, which disrupted Álvarez’s rhythm even if they didn’t land. While Bivol entered as an undefeated champion at 175 pounds, and faced a fighter in Álvarez who had moved up from a lighter weight class, his win qualifies as an upset. DAZN had hoped the agreement would culminate in a September showdown between Álvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin, a middleweight champion who has fought Álvarez twice.

Dmitry Bivol won a unanimous decision over Canelo Álvarez to retain the WBA light heavyweight title in a major upset on Saturday night.

Most queries concerned the apparent greatness of Álvarez and Bivol only became uncomfortable when he was asked to comment on his status as a Russian against the backdrop of Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine with unfettered brutality. Bivol said that he felt Canelo’s power from the first round, pointing to his arms, which blocked so many of the Mexican’s power shots. He was happy for most of the attention to swamp Álvarez and, stoically and patiently, Bivol answered the few questions that were put to him. When I asked Bivol a few days ago if he was concerned about the odds being stacked against him, he simply smiled. It was notable as early as the second round that Bivol used his strength to push Álvarez back so that enough distance would emerge for him to clip the smaller challenger with his crisp punching. Although the judges still had the official scores ridiculously close, it looked as if Álvarez knew that he had little left. In 2017, when most reasonable and fair-minded observers believed that Gennady Golovkin had beaten him at this very same arena, Álvarez was saved by a dubious draw. It was clear that Álvarez was in trouble and fatigue began to spread across his reddened face. Álvarez looked so desperate and frustrated in the penultimate round that, rather than searching for the knockout blow he appeared to need, he lifted Bivol off his feet and carried him briefly on his back. Bivol, the champion, was made to walk first to the ring as the first echoing chants of ‘Can-el-o…Can-el-o…Can-el-o’ reverberated. He snaked out his fast jab and uncorked slick combinations which set the pattern of the fight. Dmitry Bivol shocked Saúl ‘Canelo’ Álvarez, his devastated army of fans, all of Mexico and boxing itself when he retained his WBA light heavyweight title with a consummate victory on points in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

Dmitry Bivol retains his light-heavyweight world title after a surprisingly one-sided win over Mexican superstar Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez in Las Vegas.

Bivol seemingly took control in the fifth round, when he got Alvarez on the ropes and landed several punches to his face. Zhilei Zhang (24-0-1, 19 KOs) knocked out Scott Alexander just 1:54 in the first round in a heavyweight clash. “I definitely didn’t lose the fight,” Alvarez said through a translator. “I knew that he has hard punches and he will beat on my body or my arm,” Bivol said. In dominating fashion, Bivol landed 36% of his power punches, per CompuBox, and outpunched Canelo, 152-84. “Doesn’t matter which sound he has, which sound I have, how he went in.

In a fight that three judges scored 115-113 but wasn't nearly that close, Dmitry Bivol posted one of the biggest upsets in recent memory, notching a ...

... Maybe the weight was a slight issue and made me feel less than 100 percent. Bivol landed a surprising amount of flush shots -- 152 connects to 84 -- and Alvarez's face was already red by the end of Round 1. "He's a champion in four weight classes and has four belts. Alvarez marched forward and pressed to land a fight-changing shot, but it never materialized. "I don't feel like I lost the fight," Alvarez said. I watched the fight against Callum Smith." "I know how people love Canelo and it's normal; he's the biggest fighter in the world," Bivol conceded. "No excuses, I lost today; he is a great boxer ... I felt his power. The long-awaited trilogy fight between Alvarez and Golovkin, the biggest event boxing can deliver, was already signed for Sept. 17. Against Bivol, the strategy didn't work. Bivol, ESPN's No. 2 light heavyweight, was the far cleaner puncher throughout the fight. All three judges scored the fight 115-113, but the bout wasn't nearly that close.

LAS VEGAS — Canelo Alvarez lost for the first time in over eight years on Saturday night losing by unanimous decision to WBA (super) light heavyweight ...

"I don't feel like I lost the fight. It made me not feel 100 percent during the fight." But I definitely didn't lose the fight.

Alvarez said the judges miscalculated -- that Dmitry Bivol won four or five rounds, at most, on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena. But even his promoter, Eddie Hearn, ...

"I always like to learn from things," Alvarez said. At the moment, it's difficult to see what adjustments Alvarez can make to turn the tables, but perhaps the long odds will push him to new heights -- and even further outside that comfort zone. For the first time in his career, Alvarez will attempt to exact revenge. No, Alvarez didn't lose to Golovkin, but many fans believed he did after their first meeting in September 2017 for the unified middleweight championship was deemed a draw. "I'm looking for challenges that take me out of my comfort zone." All along, Alvarez said his best weight is 168 pounds, where he remains the undisputed super middleweight champion.

The Russian light heavyweight champion retained his title with a shocking victory by unanimous decision over the heavy favorite.

But make no mistake: Bivol is the real deal. Yet all week Bivol expressed confidence—a quiet confidence that he had the skill set to beat Canelo. And he did. A quiet storyline coming into this fight was Álvarez’s decision to switch to a mainly vegan diet. But is it the right decision? But there’s a lot to unpack from Canelo’s performance. Not since his first fight with Gennadiy Golovkin has Álvarez been backed up as often as he was against Bivol. When Álvarez came forward, Bivol kept his guard up.

Russian light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol stunned the boxing world Saturday night, winning by a unanimous decision against star Canelo Álvarez – only ...

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After his landmark win against Saul 'Canelo' Álvarez, the Russian showed he is not a fighter who goes in for bluster and bombast.

Bivol wanted to dedicate his win to “all people from a small, small city who want to achieve a lot – it’s possible”. It was a reminder of a conversation earlier in the week when he explained that his parents had given him a layered identity. He will fly back to St Petersburg on Monday. Hopefully Bivol will retain his charming humility and shy away from any attempt by Putin, or the president’s fervent supporters, to turn his outstanding bravery and skill into a celebration of Russian aggression and expansion. Bivol needed to be serious and concentrated in the ring because he praised Canelo as a great champion. Bivol, in his own diffident way, will be happier in the company of his family and a heritage rooted in Kazakhstan, Moldova, Korea and Kyrgyzstan. Those memories had framed our interview but Bivol looked a very different man after dazzling Canelo. “There were too many serious things in my head,” he said of his quiet intensity throughout fight week. Bivol conceded that war in Ukraine saddened him but he avoided criticising Putin by claiming that, as a sportsman, he was not qualified to comment on political issues. Hearn had helped to drive the $160m deal which Canelo received for three fights meant to happen this year. The 31‑year‑old Russian had just dominated Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez, the celebrated king of boxing, in a clinical and comprehensive performance. The fame of Canelo runs so deep that Bivol, in a mockery of boxing tradition, was introduced before him. I don’t even feel I am the best in the light‑heavyweight division because I don’t have all the belts. Just give me the fight. Just give me the fight.