It seems that Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez is still smarting over his loss to Dmitry Bivol in May of 2022, as he has now claimed he is the ‘better’ fighter.
The fight saw Canelo return to the light heavyweight division to challenge long-reigning undefeated WBA champion Bivol having previously beaten Sergey Kovalev at the weight in November 2019.
Bivol proved a very different challenge for Canelo. He was outclassed and outboxed by the Russian stylist who ran out winner via a 12-round unanimous decision with all three scorecards reading 115-113 in his favour.
It was a tough pill to swallow for Canelo, who couldn’t get close enough to Bivol to land his power punches and was instead picked off with fast combinations throughout the bout.
Speaking to Hugo Sanchez Presenta about what went wrong in the fight, Canelo said he wasn’t fully fit and he did indeed go on to have surgery on his hand at the end of last year.
“I wasn’t 100% physically. My hand wasn’t 100%, and I couldn’t train 100%. A week before the fight, I suffered a rib injury during training.”
He then admitted he shouldn’t have taken the fight in the state he was in.
“I shouldn’t have fought. That defeat is still a pain in my heart; I still haven’t gotten over that moment. It affected me deeply because I shouldn’t have lost; I am simply better than him.”
Should Canelo successfully defend his undisputed super middleweight crown this Saturday night against 154-pound champion Jermell Charlo in Las Vegas, he may well look to pursue the rematch with Bivol in order to overturn what was only the second loss of his long career following an early defeat to Floyd Mayweather.
For now, the second fight between the rivals seems a long way off after a prolonged weight dispute.