Following his unanimous decision win against John Ryder, Canelo Alvarez maintained that his mission and motive is to next face former conqueror Dmitry Bivol in a rematch.

Alvarez is adamant that a sequel needs to take place at 175 pounds, while the career-long light heavyweight and current WBA champion Bivol has thrown a curveball in the negotiations insisting that he wants to challenge Alvarez at 168 pounds for the undisputed super middleweight championship. 

One side will have to concede in order for the stalemate to move forward so that a showdown can be staged in September around Mexican Independence Day, Alvarez’s preferred fighting date.  

“Call me crazy, he'll never beat Bivol at 175 pounds. That's for sure.” former-Alvarez promoter Oscar De La Hoya told BoxingScene.com in an interview. “At 168 it might be even more dangerous for him because I think Bivol will be even lighter on his feet, he'll be faster. So, it's a difficult situation that Canelo is in. The next fight that he takes has to be very strategic. We'll see what his brilliant promoter [Eddie Hearn] does for him.” 

The four-division world champion Alvarez has only fought twice as a light heavyweight during his 18-year career. His first match at 175 pounds was in November 2019 when he knocked out Sergey Kovalev to win the WBO title. 

His second foray into the weight class was not as successful, and Bivol leveraged his size and strength to bully and tire Alvarez in the second half of the fight to land a unanimous decision victory. Bivol outlanded Alvarez 152 to 84 throughout the twelve-round match. 

The 84 punches Alvarez connected with were the lowest in his professional career. 

Alvarez would later say that he was not able to train 100% in the Bivol fight camp due to a lingering wrist injury that eventually required surgery last fall. 

Alvarez has since insisted that he thinks he’s better than Bivol and that he felt that he was dominating the first six rounds of the fight. 

Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer, and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com, or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.