By Jim Calfa: Former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko says Dmitry Bivol shouldn’t be able to fight superstar boxer Canelo Alvarez on May 7th in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Wladimir says that all “Russian representatives need to be sanctioned.”
Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs) was born in Tokmak, Kyrgyzstan, and lives in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Although Bivol is not taking part in the invasion of Ukraine, Wladimir still feels that he shouldn’t be allowed to fight Canelo.
The Mexican superstar Canelo wants to capture all four titles at 175, and he’s expected to fight not only Bivol for his WBA belt but also Russian Artur Beterbiev in 2023 or 2024 for his IBF/WBC straps.
“Absolutely not,” said Wladimir Klitschko to BBC Boxing when asked if Dmitry Bivol should be allowed to fight Canelo on May 7th. “Every sanction, and it’s nothing about the athletes, it’s about the politics of Russia.
“Every Russian representative, in this case, needs to be sanctioned because this way we show Russia that the world is against this senseless war. There’s no good in this war,” said Wladimir.
It’s unlikely Canelo will change his mind about wanting to fight Bivol on May 7th because his focus is on capturing all the world titles in the light heavyweight division.
You can argue this is a superficial, self-serving move on Canelo’s part and he won’t change his mind about wanting to take this course to penalize Russian athletes for political purposes.
It would be interesting if Canelo suddenly decided not to fight Bivol, though, as it would be huge news and it would surprise a lot of boxing fans of the sport. Would Canelo do that? I doubt it.
Canelo wants to make history and he can do that if he becomes the undisputed champion at 175.
Rightly or wrongly, Canelo believes that capturing as many titles as possible will validate him in the eyes of fans in the distant future. I don’t know that it will. Some people believe that Canelo doesn’t really care about making history.
In other words, he’s just targeting the world champions at 168 and 175 because he sees weakness and opportunity for him to capture an easy world title.
It gives Canelo an excuse not to have to fight the guy that fans want him to face in David Benavidez, who might be too young, powerful, and talented for the Mexican star.
Canelo’s excuse not to have to fight Benavidez is ‘He has nothing to offer me.’
Canelo can use that excuse because he’s focusing on fighting world champions one after another, albeit the less talented ones thus far.
The best of the bunch is IBF/WBC light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev, but Canelo hasn’t fought him yet and it’s believed he’s going to wait until 2024 to age the Russian fighter before finally facing him.
When fans look at fighters from the past, they’re more focused on the great fights that they had, not on how many world titles they captured.
The 31-year-old Mexican star Canelo become the undisputed champion at 168 last year after defeating Caleb Plant in November. What was incredible about that feat is that Canelo accomplished that within 11 months.
Granted, he had a huge advantage with his popularity and superstar status.
If Canelo were simply a talented fighter, he likely would have been avoided by these fighters. Unfortunately, the way the sport is conducted by promoters and boxers in this era is to avoid the dangerous opposition and look for a backdoor route to a world title.
Once a fighter captures a world title, they milk the belt by taking strictly easy opposition. On the rare occasions that they deviate from this path is when a superstar fighter like Canelo asks for a fight.
With the massive money Canelo’s opponents can make fighting him, they’re willing to face him one after another. This gives Canelo the ability to face champions that normal talented boxers are unable to.
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