Canelo Alvarez’s Belated ‘50%’ Claim: Injury Excuse Or Attempt To Salvage Bivol Rematch?

Canelo Alvarez claims he was only “50%” due to injuries for his fight against light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol in 2022. Alvarez (62-2-2, 39 KOs) says he potentially wants a rematch with Bivol in 2026, because he wants to “show” that he’s a better fighter.

Fans Don’t Buy It

Fans won’t buy into Alvarez losing to Bivol due to injury. It just looked like Bivol was too big for Canelo, and he had a style that was all wrong for him. His superior stamina was also a significant factor in his victory over Canelo.

The Mexican star looked exhausted after three rounds. He says he had a hand and knee injury that prevented him from sparring or running during camp.

Coming up with excuses three years after the defeat makes Alvarez look pathetic somehow. Even if he had all these problems, why didn’t he attempt to avenge his loss all these years?

Bivol (24-1, 12 KOs) dominated Alvarez, winning a 12-round unanimous decision in a fight that appeared a lot more one-sided than the narrow scores turned in by the Nevada judges on May 7, 2022.

If Canelo loses his next fight against William Scull on May 3rd or his match against Terence Crawford on September 13th, there won’t be much interest in seeing him go up to 175 for a rematch with Bivol. Alvarez might as well stay at 168 to continue his glorified retirement tour.

“I would like to have that opportunity to have that rematch with Bivol. That’s the only fight at 175 that I would really take, but we’ll see,” said Canelo Alvarez to Ring Magazine about wanting a chance to fight unified light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol again.

Canelo could have fought him in 2022, 2023, or 2024. It doesn’t make sense for Alvarez to wait until 2026 to fight him. Is he trying to age him out? Was he lame all those years? Fear is the likely reason. He didn’t want to get beaten again. Now that Saudi money is involved, Canelo is willing to fight Bivol. That’ll help soften the blow of another one-sided loss.

“Yeah,” said Canelo, reacting to being told that his loss to Bivol ‘still bothers’ him. “Not bothers me, but I want to tell myself, ‘You learned something from that fight. What things you don’t need to do again?’ I have that thing in myself, ‘You need to show you’re a better fighter than him.’”

The loss to Bivol clearly still bothers Alvarez because he wouldn’t still be yakking about it now. That defeat has probably haunted Canelo, and he’s been stewing on the defeat, replaying it in his head like an old movie.

The 50% Claim

“I have 50% of my abilities right there,” said Alvarez about him being only at half capacity for his fight against Bivol in 2022. “No condition, no nothing, because I can’t run and I can’t throw like I do or do pads and do sparring.”

Canelo shouldn’t have taken the fight if he were only at “50%”, because fans don’t believe in fighters when they give excuses after defeats. No one would have blamed Alvarez if he had postponed the Bivol fight until he was healthy.

“You can ask Alex Govski. He was there helping me for that fight. I have like one month with no sparring because of my [injured] hand. Yeah,” said Canelo when asked if his injured knee prevented him from running during camp for the Bivol fight.

“I did a good fight, a very good fight, but not enough. Oh, he’s good. He’s a very good fighter. You can see, and everybody says, ‘Oh, he’s nothing. He chose the fighter.’ He’s a good fighter; he’s one of the best fighters out there. Let’s see,” said Alvarez when told that the Bivol rematch is a ‘big fight’ for him in 2026.