LAS VEGAS — Here are three thoughts on Dmitry Bivol’s stunning upset win over Canelo Álvarez on Saturday.
What a performance by Dmitry Bivol
Bivol was a massive underdog coming into this fight. He was the titleholder—Álvarez, the undisputed champion at 168-pounds, was moving up in weight—but few, if any, gave the relatively untested Bivol a chance against boxing’s pound-for-pound king. Yet all week Bivol expressed confidence—a quiet confidence that he had the skill set to beat Canelo. And he did.
For 12 rounds Bivol operated behind a textbook jab, firing off 418 of them (to Álvarez’s 229, per CompuBox) while throwing more power punches (292–266) than one of boxing’s heaviest hitters.