cowboyronnie wrote:Knickfan1982 wrote:Butch718 wrote:Not surprised by the outcome. All true boxing heads know that Bivol was a legit 175 pounder, which Canelo is not. The fact that people are calling this a big upset annoys me because it’s disrespectful to Bivol. Canelo is lucky that it wasn’t Betterbiev because he would have gotten knocked out.
This doesn’t take away anything from Canelo. He dared to be great and fell short. It’s time for him to lock up some big fights at 168, where he belongs.
Also, the 115-113 scores were atrocious. They wanted to give Canelo that fight. Bivol won 118-110 or 117-111 at worst.
If Bivol hadn't looked pedestrian in his previous 2 fights he would have never gotten the call. Congratulations to him on coming away with a win despite the judges best efforts to screw him.
Bivol is 31-y-o, a baby in the sport. Why would Canelo's team have thought there was a trend in lower quality performance when they had seen him obliterate people like Smith? It's not like he was over the hill.
It's just wild speculation to think Canelo's team only took this because they thought there was weakness. I mean, for one thing, they'd be idiots to think there was weakness and that Bivol wouldn't get up for a fight with Canelo. Do you think they're idiots?
Because that's what Canelo does. His recent run that everyone of his fan boys talk so highly about....its all built on fighting guys when they show signs of slipping.
Could have fought GGG anytime after Canelo won the middleweight belt from Miguel Cotto in late 2015. GGG was his mandatory. When did Canelo fight him....after GGG struggled with Daniel Jacobs and Kell Brook had some success against him.
After the GGG fights Canelo moved up. Could have fought any of the 168 lb champions right then and there. Chose to fight secondary titlist Rocky Felding. Then he went back down to fight Danny Jacobs. After that fight he jumped all the way to 175 to fight Sergei Kovalev less than 3 months after Kovalev almost got knocked out by Anthony Yarde. His next fight....against Callum Smith...the real holder of the belt that the previously mentioned Rocky Felding held a secondary version of. Why did he choose to fight Callum Smith then. In Callum Smith's previous fight he looked terrible and many believe he got a gift decision against John Ryder. He then chose to fight Billy Joe Saunders and Caleb Plant. Nothing wrong with unifying the titles except...Billy Jo Saunders was a champion at 160 when Canelo was champion at 160 but never got the fight and wasn't too far removed from a flat performance against an unheralded opponent on the Logan Paul/KSI card.
With Bivol and Beterbiev both looking underwhelming in the more recent fights one of them getting selected as Canelo's next opponent wasn't too much of a shock. It was also not too shocking that he also decided to finally give GGG the trilogy fight the world had been asking for. It just so happened to be scheduled 4 years to the day of their previous fight and only after GGG struggled in 2 of his past three fights including what some would consider winning a gift decision against Sergei Derevychenko.
Meanwhile undefeated young guns Jermall Charlo and Demetrious Andrade have both held belts at the same time and in the same division as Canelo in two different weight classes are poised to make jumps to 168 themselves. Canelo could have fought them at any point but chose not to try and unify until he got to 168lb division. Must have been a coincidence. Another coincidence, when he decided against fighting GGG after the Cotto fight Canelo moved back down to 154 for a title fight. The shot was for a vacant title that was recently stripped from Andrade.
Its a pattern dude. Canelo has accomplished a lot but he very carefully chooses whom he fights when. Let's face it, he's not a natural red head. He's a blonde but all his cherry picking has made him look like a red head.
and still be treated as if you were reasonable.