Russia’s Dmitry Bivol defeated Mexican Canelo Alvarez to retain the WBA light heavyweight title in Las Vegas on Saturday, 7 May, 2022.
The duo fought through the entire 12 rounds without a knockout and this resulted in the Russian being declared the winner by a unanimous decision.
Coincidentally, the judges equally scored the bout 115- 113 with the Russian who achieved his 20th win in 20 fights, retaining the title.
Bivol proved too difficult for the Mexican who is acknowledged as the world’s foremost poundfor-pound fighter.
However, in the course of the duel, Canelo tried finding a weak spot to get at the Russian who exhibited discipline to block his head and constantly threw jabs to keep his challenger in check.
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The champion, who was evidently amazed to have gotten the better of the judges’ scores to retain the WBA title, stressed that though he has proved himself as the best in his ranks, his challenger is a great champion.
“I’m glad I proved myself today, I’m the best in my division and I keep this belt,” he said after retaining the belt.
“He’s a great champion, I respect him and all his team. “If you don’t believe in yourself what do you do? You achieve nothing. I believe and my team believed in me.
Canales’ loss to Bivol is his second in his career which happened 9 years after he lost to Floyd Mayweather.
Tentatively, the Mexican has not given up just yet as he has insisted on a rematch which Bivol is not against but needs time to revel in his title.
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