After recent reports surfaced indicating that Canelo Alvarez may be nearing a fight against Dmitry Bivol for his next outing, David Benavidez took a moment to give his take on that potential fight. When the fight was first seriously mentioned there weren’t many who appreciated my appraisal of Bivol’s style going against someone like Canelo, so let’s hear it from a fighter who’s at least got some experience sharing a ring with Bivol.
Benavidez on how he views a potential Canelo-Bivol matchup
“I think what’s gonna be difficult from this fight is Bivol’s not too big of a guy — I’m talking about height wise. I mean the last couple fights Canelo has fought really tall guys, not really power punchers. And I’ve sparred Bivol too, he has a good one-two but other than that…
“Bivol has good power but to be honest with you, he throws good one-twos but other than that — you can see it in the fight, he’s not really too much different, he doesn’t really change it up. So when he throws a right hand you’ll see a big ass right hand coming, and I feel like he really doesn’t have much after that. Especially with Canelo, his way to slide punches, I feel like you need more body shots, more all that shit and Bivol really only kind of throws one-twos. I mean he’s very effective with it but like I said, it ain’t my job to say what he can or can’t do, he got to see it for himself. I’m sure he’s gonna get motivated.
“(Bivol’s) very effective at what he does, he puts the right hand in really good. You can’t block the shot (with a split guard) because he knows exactly how to put it in (between the gloves)…but once you get the timing down with that — you go around and ask about the sparring I had with him and they’ll tell you. It’s a great fight, I like Bivol a lot.”
On who was harder to deal with in sparring between Bivol and Zurdo Ramirez
“They’re both world class fighters, bro. I’m not gonna say either one or another one. They’re both world class fighters…Zurdo throws a lot of body shots, he pivots a lot, he does different stuff. And I’ve worked with Zurdo way more…we’ve been sparring since I was like 19.”