WBA Light Heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol, who is set to face Gilbert Ramirez in Abu Dhabi on 5th November, has revealed that a rematch with Canelo Alvarez is no longer interesting to him, and even claimed that he did not see the trilogy fight between Canelo and Gennady Golovkin last month.
“He (Canelo) wants a rematch. It’s not a surprise to me because he’s a champion,” Bivol in an interview with Fight Hub TV, “It’s okay for him that he wants revenge. Of course, the better way for me is to move forward, move up. We can talk about a rematch, but it’s not interesting to me like it was before.”
As for what would happen in a rematch against Canelo was to take place, Bivol remains unspecific. Although he clearly dominated the Mexican in the first fight, the Russian does not assume that the same thing would happen in a second fight.
“I don’t know. It’ll be another fight, and everything will be new,” he commented on whether a rematch would have the same verdict, “We will see will there be a rematch or no.”
“I think it’s before Canelo, and it would be a good fight,” Bivol stated on preferring to face IBF/WBC/WBO light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev next for the undisputed title, rather than a rematch with Canelo, “Of course, now it’s good fight for four belts. Yeah, we were on the same team. We were on the national team, and he was one of the best fighters on our team.”
“I saw him as the older, more experienced fighter. He was kind of like one of the leaders on the team. I kind of looked up to him a little bit as one of the guys that was on top.
Bivol did not see Canelo vs. GGG 3
Bivol further explained why he did not want to see the fight between Canelo and Golovkin Bivol assured it was not because he was not interested, but rather he wanted to focus on is own fight.
“To be honest, I didn’t see the fight (between Canelo and Golovkin),” he continued, “It’s an interesting fight for me to watch, but I don’t want to see another fight when I have my own fight. And it is that, when I see a fight, I imagine how I would fight against that boxer, and I spend a lot of energy on that. And that’s why I didn’t want to watch this fight, I want to be focused on my fight.”
However, Bivol assures that he received reports of how the fight between Canelo and GGG was, in which the Mexican won via a 12-round unanimous decision.
“I heard that (Canelo) won eight or nine rounds, and that Gennady was better at the end of the fight,” Bivol concluded, “But I heard the fight was kind of boring.”
