With talks of a rematch between Canelo Alvarez and Dmitri Bivol surfacing again in recent weeks, Roberto Duran has given his thoughts on how the Mexican can rectify the wrongs of their first encounter
The legendary Panamanian told DAZN that Canelo can have more success in a prospective rematch – providing he gets up close to Bivol.
“You can’t fight Canelo toe to toe because he’s going to knock you out. What I did notice is that Canelo didn’t know how to get inside a big person – and that can be corrected.”
“He can correct his mistakes. But even though the trainer can correct those mistakes in the gym, you as a fighter are the one who has to work. The trainer can train you, but when you’re in the ring it’s a different thing. It’s you against the other.”
Duran said he had a similar mentality to Canelo, in the fact that he always wanted an immedidate rematch if he got beat.
“If it’s difficult [to correct those mistakes], then you have to have pride and shame.”
“This guy beat me, but he can’t beat me again. That was always my mentality, if a guy beat me I always wanted a rematch, it’s strange that the rematch has taken so long. If I were Canelo I would have wanted it already. I would have talked to his manager, asked him to put him in heavier sparring partners who would box him, that they wouldn’t let him in so that he could develop his way of fighting.”
Bivol was a relatively comfortable winner when the pair faced in May of this year, overcoming the bookmakers odds to win unanimous decision at the T-Mobile Arena.
Canelo got back on the winning trail in September, however, with a win over long time foe Gennadiy Golovkin, and has been insistent that a rematch with Bivol is very much on his radar for 2023.
The Russian defeated Canelo’s countryman Gilberto Ramirez in Abu Dhabi earlier this month, cementing his credentials in the eyes of many as fighter of the year.