Canelo Alvarez reveals he wanted an immediate rematch against Dmitry Bivol ahead of Gennadiy Golovkin trilogy
Canelo Alvarez has revealed that he wanted an immediate rematch against Dmitry Bivol to be his next fight. However, due to a pre-fight contractual agreement with DAZN, he decided to face Golovkin on September 17 and defend his Undisputed Super Middleweight Championship instead.
Canelo suffered a shock defeat to Bivol back in May at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Bivol outboxed and dominated Alvarez over 12 rounds to claim a unanimous decision win. The Russian retained his WBA Light Heavyweight Championship and gave Canelo his first loss since 2013.
Watch the fight highlights for Canelo vs. Bivol:
Here's what Canelo said in an interview with SecondsOut:
"The next day I tell Eddie Hearn 'I want the rematch in September,' its the only fight I want in September. But we have contract before and we made these two-deal fights with DAZN, which is Bivol and Golovkin fight... We are here, we need to do this fight and then we're gonna start talking about the rematch."
Watch the full interview:
Canelo Alvarez on trilogy fight with Gennadiy Golovkin
During the same interview, Canelo expressed how boxing fans are happy to see the trilogy fight with Golovkin taking place. He described his rival as one of the best boxers in history:
"The people want this fight and he's a good fighter. He's maybe one of the best fighters in boxing history. So every single fight is important for me."
The rivalry between Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin started back in 2017 when the two faced off for the first time. Despite many believing 'GGG' did enough to win the contest, a split-decision draw was decided by the judges.
Watch the fight highlights of Canelo vs. Golovkin 1:
A rematch then took place in 2018 where Alvarez won a majority decision to capture the WBC, WBA and The Ring Middleweight Championships. However, this was another highly competitive bout that could have gone either way.
After sharing the ring on twice, the fighters went in different directions. Canelo Alvarez fought the majority of his bouts at super middleweight, becoming undisputed by defeating the likes of Callum Smith, Billy Joe Saunders and Caleb Plant last November.
Meanwhile, 'GGG' has remained at 160 lbs where he recently stopped Ryota Murata in the ninth round to unify the IBO, WBA and IBF Middleweight Championships.
It remains to be seen if there is a conclusive winner in the Canelo-Golovkin trilogy. With the Kazakh now 40 and likely entering the final years of his career, this might be Alvarez's best opportunity to become the first man to knock out 'GGG'.