LAS VEGAS:
\nUnbeaten Dmitry Bivol retained his WBA light-heavyweight world title with a unanimous points decision over Saul \u201cCanelo\u201d Alvarez on Saturday, handing the Mexican superstar just the second defeat of his career.
\nRussia\u2019s Bivol, 31, improved to 20-0 with 11 knockouts while multiweight champion Alvarez, the pound-for-pound king who went in a heavy favourite, fell to 57-2 with two draws.
\nHis only other defeat was to Floyd Mayweather at light middleweight in 2013.
\nAlvarez made boxing history in November when he stopped Caleb Plant to become the first man to unite all four super middleweight world title belts.
\nHe had fought at light-heavyweight before, stopping Sergey Kovalev in the 11th round to win the WBO 175-pound title in November 2019.
\nBut there would be no late heroics against Bivol, who pressured Alvarez relentlessly throughout the bout and never appeared to be hurt seriously by the Mexican, who struggled to get past Bivol\u2019s guard.
\n\u201cHe hurt my arm,\u201d Bivol said, displaying a bruised upper arm that absorbed a string of punches.
\n\u201cI felt his power, you can see on my arm. He beat my arm up \u2013 but not my head.\u201d
\nAll three judges \u2013 Tim Cheatham, Dave Moretti and Steve Weisfeld \u2013 scored the bout 115-113 for Bivol.
\n\u201cI prove myself today, I\u2019m the best (in my division),\u201d Bivol said.
\n\u201cThank you, Eddie Hearn,\u201d he added in a nod to the promoter, \u201csorry I broke your plans with Gennadiy Golovkin.\u201d
\nThat was a reference to the planned third fight between Alvarez and Golovkin, which had been tentatively planned for September.
\nIt was a massive disappointment for the pro-Alvarez crowd at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, who were pulling for a Mexican victory on the Cinco de Mayo holiday weekend.
\nWhile Alvarez was feted with Mexican flags and Mariachi music, the Russian national anthem wasn\u2019t played and Russian flags were banned inside the arena because of the country\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.
\nBivol said the crowd\u2019s partisan cheers whenever Alvarez seemed to be gaining ground \u201cgave me more energy.\u201d
\nAlvarez landed a big uppercut to Bivol\u2019s chin to end the fourth round. But his aggressive start to the fifth yielded little as Bivol turned the tables with a big flurry in the middle of the round and closed with a punishing left hand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LAS VEGAS: Unbeaten Dmitry Bivol retained his WBA light-heavyweight world title with a unanimous points decision over Saul \u201cCanelo\u201d Alvarez on Saturday, handing the Mexican superstar just the second defeat of his career. Russia\u2019s Bivol, 31, improved to 20-0 with 11 knockouts while multiweight champion Alvarez, the pound-for-pound king who went in a heavy favourite, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259403,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6964,6962,6963],"class_list":{"0":"post-259380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-alvarez","9":"tag-dmitry-bivol","10":"tag-wbc-title"},"yoast_head":"\n