So I haven't watched a ton of the current Light Heavyweights, but from what I've seen so far from the two, it looks like Bivol is a tougher matchup. His jab and movement looks really sharp, a style that has been known to give Canelo some issues. However, it seems like I hear that Beterbiev is the harder matchup, but to me it seems like he has a style Canelo would shine against. Tell me if I'm crazy lol
Beter gets benefit of the doubt for looking like a Russian mafia henchman
Bivol looks like an Asian who just moved to the States
Lol.
Bivol is better looking.
Beter gets points for being born in Dagestan
Toss up
Beterbiev is the harder puncher, the stronger of the two, but he is flat-footed and slow. Maybe a better inside fighter than Bivol. Not sure who has the better chin of the two, or who can take it to the body better.
It's hard to say because people used to always say Canelo likes people to come towards him, but struggles when guys use movement. But he just beat BJS and Plant and they have good footwork and hard to catch clean. I think Beterbiev is the harder fight, he's aggressive and would give Canelo chances to counter, but he's aggressive in a 'grind you down' sort of a way rather than swinging for the fences all the time. His win over Gvozdyk and performance in that fight were better than anything I've seen from Bivol.
If a 175lber with the skills of Floyd or Lara existed, they might give Canelo a lot of trouble. But Bivol doesn't seem near that level to me.
Ok. Makes sense.... I did undersell Canelo a little. He got outboxed by Lara and Floyd, two of the most skilled/talented fighters in 20 years. Bivol is not on their talent level, but it'll be interesting to see how Canelo deals with either him or Beterbiev. I'm not sold on Canelo's power at 175, I feel like Kovalev was pretty weathered at that point. But if Canelo can hurt these guys, he might just get it done.