Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez knew that he wasn’t going to stick around for very long at light heavyweight following his November 2019 WBO title-winning knockout over Sergey Kovalev.
It never meant that he didn’t one day plan to return to the division.
That day arrives on Saturday, when Alvarez faces WBA light heavyweight titlist Dmitry Bivol (19-0, 11KOs) atop a DAZN Pay-Per-View from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The fight is just the second time in his storied career that Guadalajara’s Alvarez (57-1-2, 39KOs) fights heavier than 168 pounds, though always confident from his previous quick trip that he would handle the weight well.
“There’s nothing different about training camp. I just prepare for a heavier weight, a new style,” Alvarez previously told BoxingScene.com at the start of training camp. “That’s the only difference. Kovalev and [Bivol] are not the same style, but it’s the same weight for me.”
The biggest difference is the absence of a weight cut, as Alvarez generally walks around at 180 pounds. It was what he carried in the wake of his eleventh-round knockout of Caleb Plant (21-1, 12KOs) last November 6 to fully unify the super middleweight titles, sensing his next fight would be at light heavyweight or even cruiserweight.
Alvarez eventually settled on light heavyweight and the unbeaten Bivol, who will attempt the ninth defense of the belt he has held for more than four years after previously serving as an interim titlist. The physical part of training camp was fine-tuning Alvarez’s stocky but chiseled frame, which was on display as he weighed 174.4 pounds during Friday’s official weigh-in. It was slightly lighter than the 174 ½ pounds that Alvarez weighed for his knockout win over Kovalev.
“We train hard for every fight. I just weigh more for this fight than [at super middleweight],” noted Alvarez, who aims to collect his thirteenth major title across four weight divisions.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
