Dmitry Bivol is one of two men to beat Canelo Alvarez in 67 fights. In under two month’s time, Terence Crawford will attempt to become the third.
Canelo made the jump up to light heavyweight in 2022 to face Bivol for the WBA title, having beaten Sergey Kovalev at the weight three years prior. He had no such success against Bivol, who showed extreme skill and discipline on his way to a points victory.
The Mexican icon has since dropped back down to super middleweight and is on a six fight winning streak. He will welcome Crawford up two divisions in September, putting his four world titles on the line.
Speaking to the Ring Magazine, Bivol summed up Crawford’s chances of beating Canelo simply, saying ‘he is able’ to win even despite it being his first fight at the weight.
“First reaction of course is about size of Crawford. Is it okay for him to move up two weight classes. But then I saw him in Dubai, maybe a month ago. I saw he’s big and he has very good skills. He is one of my favorite boxers. He is able to win this fight.”
Having said that, the Russian pound-for-pound star – who has become undisputed in the division years his defence against Canelo – is aware that this may be the toughest test of Crawford’s campaign.
“There are a lot of small things we don’t know how he’ll deal with. He needs to get used to the power and pressure of 168 lbs. Because it’s big difference to be honest. Maybe he’ll get used to it. And how he’ll feel himself on fight day, how his training camp will go on, a lot of things. But he’s able, he has good skills.”