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The next six weeks will see Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and Dmitry Bivol head in very different directions.
Whether their paths cross again could depend on the performances in their respective next outings.
Guadalajara’s Alvarez (57-2-2, 39KOs) will meet rival Gennadiy ‘GGG’ Golovkin in their long-discussed trilogy clash this Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The same venue played host to their questionable split decision draw in September 2017 and a less controversial but still contested majority decision victory in favor of Alvarez in their September 2018 rematch.
The belief heading into the third fight is that Guadalajara’s Alvarez, who is defending his undisputed super middleweight championship, will claim a much more decisive victory this time. Yet he enters the fight just four months after a twelve-round unanimous decision loss on May 7 at this very venue to Bivol (20-0, 11KOs), whose team has insisted that a second straight Alvarez loss will leave its own series in one-and-done.
“If Canelo loses Golovkin, then we won’t fight him in the rematch either,” Vadim Kornilov, Bivol’s manager, told BoxingScene.com and a small group of reporters while discussing Bivol’s upcoming WBA light heavyweight title defense. against Gilberto ‘Lefty. Ramirez. “I heard him say that he won’t fight Bivol if he loses to Ramirez. Yes [Canelo] lost against Golovkin, we are not fighting against Golovkin.”
Talk of a second fight between Bivol and Álvarez arose after Bivol defeated the sport’s pound-for-pound and box office king, as his May 7 DAZN Pay-Per-View main card included a rematch clause. Alvarez was already committed to a third fight with Golovkin (42-1-1, 37KOs) heading into the fight, so any decision on that is a moot point as he moves back down to super middleweight while Bivol fulfills his mandatory boxing obligations. title defense.
Alvarez was recently quoted in a FightHype.com interview as stating that a Bivol rematch would be dead if the undefeated champion lost to Ramirez (44-0, 30KOs), a 31-year-old southpaw from Mazatlan, Mexico. in their November 5 clash in Abu Dhabi. Alvarez is rooting for his countrywoman to prevail in the light heavyweight title fight to air on DAZN, while his latest opponent has at least one super fan in his proverbial corner.
Bivol remains coy about how the Alvarez-Golovkin trilogy will play out, beyond not openly supporting an Alvarez win for the sake of another big payday in his own career.
“I don’t know, I don’t like to make predictions. But we support Triple G,” admitted Bivol, who will celebrate his fifth anniversary as a major title on the eve of his title defense against Ramirez.
That said, wins for Alvarez and Bivol could well net the 31-year-old from St. Petersburg via Kyrgyzstan a big deal. However, such a fight will come on terms far beyond what Bivol agreed to for meeting him earlier this year.
“There is no obligation for the rematch to happen,” Kornilov insisted. “We can make it happen. We have an agreement that if the fight can be done, we will do it. Our partnership with Matchroom [Boxing], we can always make it work. It’s a big money fight.
“But if he lost to Golovkin, it’s not that big of a fight anymore and we can go fight someone else.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
