By Allan Fox: Tim Bradley feels proud about being one of the pundits that predicted ahead of time that Dmitry Bivol was one of the rare fighters capable of potentially defeating superstar Canelo Alvarez.
Bradley wants Canelo to get a win under his belt first before running it back for a rematch against Bivol in 2023.
In September, a trilogy fight for Canelo against Gennadiy Golovkin would be an ideal confidence booster, and then a soft defense against John Ryder in December. After beats those two fighters, he’ll be ready to rematch Bivol in 2023.
Bradley felt that if the WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs fought the proper fight, he could defeat Canelo (57-2-2, 39 KOs).
That’s what Bivol did in winning a surprisingly easy 12-round unanimous decision over Canelo at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“I was the first one to tell everybody, the whole entire world, that if there was a guy that would beat him, I did say [David] Benavidez had a chance and Bivol. I said Bivol has a great chance of beating Canelo,” said Tim Bradley to Fighthype about how he predicted that WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol maybe would beat Canelo Alvarez.
Bradley didn’t factor in Canelo’s poor conditioning for the fight. The Mexican star looked red-faced & winded by the 2nd round, and he never got his second wind after gassing early.
The real problem for Canelo was the fast pace that Bivol set, as he pushed the superstar to fight quickly, and he didn’t allow him to take the rest breaks that he required.
“The footwork, the whole nine, like I told you guys. He executed the game plan perfectly, man,” Bradley continued about Bivol on his domination of Canelo.
The combination punching from Bivol seemed to bother Canelo the most because he was under severe duress in being bombarded with four to seven-punch combinations throughout the fight.
When you’re getting shelled the way Canelo was by Bivol, it takes a lot out of your system. Although Canelo was blocking some of the shots from Bivol, many leaked through during his strafing runs.
“He fought a courageous fight. Part of me felt like he could do it, he couldn’t do it,” Bradley said about Bivol. “He has what it takes, but if x-y-z, he’ll win the fight, and he did precisely x-y-z and a little more to win the battle.
“It’s all good. It’s excellent, good for him [Bivol]. Moving forward, let’s see if Canelo rematches him at 168. Do I believe Canelo should? Yeah, he should, but he can take his time and revisit that. It’s not a problem. I don’t have a problem with that.
“Running it right back, I don’t know if that interests Canelo. He needs to get back in the winning column first and then run it back a year later,” said Bradley.
