Although Canelo Alvarez is yet to take on challenger Edgar Berlanga, his eyes have bypassed this bout to lock in a new fight. Alvarez has revealed his plan for his next fight – in May 2025, against neither Terrence Crawford nor David Benavidez.
Alvarez said he's going to have a rematch with old rival Dmitry Bivol. However, the premise of the rematch is that Alvarez must draw with Berlanga today, and Bivol must win the 175-pound light heavyweight title unification bout against Artur Beterbiev next month, with Alvarez defeating Berlanga not a big problem, but can Bivol beat Beterbiev? Alvarez didn't talk about Bertbiev's victory and that he would challenge him.
If Alvarez does challenge Bivol next May, it will be an "act of revenge" for Benavidez. Benavidez is a mandatory challenger in the WBC light heavyweight division and is eligible to face the winner of Bivol vs. Beterbiev, so how would Benavidez feel if he was disrupted by Alvarez?
Alvarez's only explanation for not mentioning the challenge to Beterbiev was that he was avenging his loss to Bivol in May 2022, where the three referees unanimously voted Alvarez 115-113, but more felt the gap between the two sides was even more pronounced. Of course, aside from the reason for revenge, Alvarez may be afraid of Beterbiev, because the opponent is very dangerous, he may knock Alvarez down, this is not how Alvarez wants to lose the fight, at least compared to Beterbiev, Bivol is more "safe", he lacks Beterbiev's heavy punches, and at the same time is afraid of being hit, Alvarez can stand in front of Bivol and lose, without worrying about suffering a heavy blow and falling to the ground.
Boxing columnist Michael Kopinge said: "I spoke to Alvarez and he revealed that his next fight against Bivol is if Bivol can become the undisputed light heavyweight champion by beating Beterbiev on October 12. ”
Even if Bivol beats Beterbiev, it will be unknown whether Alvarez will be able to get Bivol smoothly, because it has already been reported that a rematch between Bivol and Beterbiev is not ruled out, and Alvarez will also talk about the operator of this match - Turki Alarshkh. Some time ago, Alalshkh planned to facilitate the battle of Alvarez vs Crawford, but the two sides broke up unhappily.
"Alvarez vs Bivol rematch really happened and it will be completely different from Alvarez's last few fights," Copingue said. Alvarez would be seen as a weaker in the rematch against Bivol, and I think the score would be 10-2 or 9-3 in the 2022 first match, so the rematch would be more popular than Wall. ”
Copingue continued: "Alvarez told me that he knew he could beat Bivol because he was the better fighter and he thought he had a hand injury in a fight with Bivol, right? All in all, everything was bad, Alvarez felt that injuries were a big reason for the loss to Bivol, and this problem has been bothering him. ”
Whether Alvarez actually lost to Bivol due to injury or illness is known only to him, which may be one of the factors, but the other factor is that Alvarez was obviously overwhelmed after rising to 175 pounds, and Bivol was better than expected, which combined to cause Alvarez to suffer a loss.
Another boxing columnist, Sean Jones, believes that Alvarez does not want to fight Crawford, Benavidez, so after entering 2025, there are not many ideal opponents for him to choose from, in this case, Alvarez thought of Bivol, he felt sure that he could get revenge on his opponent and at the same time get more in this rematch, in short, after weighing the pros and cons, Alvarez felt that Bivol was more suitable.
"Alvarez wants sweet revenge, which is a combination of risk and gain, and even if Alvarez loses to Bivol again, he'll tell everyone he's an upgrader," Jones said. ”