Artur Beterbiev is too powerful for Canelo Alvarez right now, so the Mexican star has opted to go the underdog path against the WBA champion, Dmitry Bivol, to try to become the undisputed 175 champion.
It’s obvious that Canelo and his trainer/manager Eddy Reynoso are looking to age Beterbiev (17-0, 17 KOs) as much as possible before they finally face him in 2024 or, if need be, 2025.
Canelo and Reynoso will wait as long as humanly possible before finally facing Beterbiev because they will be fighting him now; they have no chance of winning.
Beterbiev all bad for Canelo
Two-time Russian Olympian Beterbiev’s power game is not right for Canelo, and always has been.
If he had to create a hand wrestler designed to destroy Canelo, he would come up with Beterbiev. Simply put, Beterbiev is BAD news for Canelo, and the Mexican star knows it, which is why he’s avoiding him like the plague.
Beterbiev just turned 37 on January 21, and if Canelo fights him right now, it would be reckless of him because he can’t beat the Russian.
Why Artur Beterbiev beats Canelo
- body punches
- inner game
- non-stop punching
- Not allowing breaks to recover
Beterbiev’s inside game of short, powerful punches would ruin Canelo in four rounds, and there would be nothing his trainer Reynoso could do about it.
Canelo wouldn’t be able to keep Beterbiev off him, and would take him down with short jabs thrown with destructive power.
Beterbiev’s superior inside game is just one reason why he would slaughter Canelo.
The non-stop punches and withering body shots that Beterbiev lands would be the knockout blow in him destroying Canelo and leaving him in a heap of broken meat on the canvas on the night.
Too much firepower
“Yes, why not? Maybe,” Canelo told ESNEWS when asked if he’d like to fight Beterbiev at 175.
“Canelo, but they’re going to hit him with something he’s never been hit before [by Artur Beterbiev],” Chris Mannix told DAZN when asked who the best fighter in the world is.
“Most of the time,” Mannix said, skills matter more than size.
“The only thing I haven’t seen anyone do against Beterbiev is attack the body,” AK said. “Those kinds of guys, that’s how you slow them down. Nobody can throw a left hook like Canelo Alvarez to the body.
“Okay, he’s going to be under a lot of fire to get that shot, but those are the kind of shots that are going to stop Beterbiev from being a savage.
“We’re not saying it’s going to be easy. Obviously, it’s going to be a dangerous fight. This guy [Beterbiev] is a wild one. A puncher will keep moving forward, but skills pay the bills in this sport, and Canelo has the skills to beat him,” AK said.
It seems we have some naive commenters on DAZN who don’t know how talented Beterbiev is, but oh well. If Canelo gets to fight Beterbiev in 2023, he will be crushed for sure, and believe me; he won’t be pretty.
Sean Jones only wonders if Canelo’s trainer, the eagle-eyed Reynoso, will throw in the towel to save him when the one-sided beating Beterbiev is inflicting on him becomes too much.
What we would hate to see is Reynoso leaving Canelo out to take the punishment like we saw in Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez’s fight against Julio Cesar Martinez last weekend.
Rey Martínez, trained in Reynoso, received a terrible beating from Chocolatito. It was apparent the fight needed to be stopped in the 10th round because former 4 division world champion Roman was beating Julio like a rookie.
If Canelo takes the same kind of beating from Beterbiev that Rey Martinez absorbed from Chocolatito, will Reynoso do the right thing and throw in the white towel of surrender?
Canelo will not drive Artur away
“Gennadiy Golovkin, do you think he doesn’t hit harder than Beterbiev? Maybe he hits just as hard,” Barak said. “I know that Abel Sánchez says that when he trained ‘The Krusher’ [Sergey Kovalev] knocking out everyone, that Gennadiy Golovkin hits harder than Golovkin.
“So maybe GGG hits as hard as Beterbiev, and you saw Canelo not get hurt by GGG’s punches,” Barak said, not remembering the second Canelo-Golovkin fight when GGG staggered Canelo in the later rounds.
“My opinion just to respond to Barak’s comment. I think Beterbiev hits harder than Golovkin and Kovalev,” said Sergio Mora. “There’s something about his power, how heavy his hands are. It’s that overwhelming power that’s scary. He can hit you anywhere.”
There is no chance that Canelo will be able to keep Beterbiev off him in any of the rounds of the fight because he will force the Mexican star to exhaust his poor cardio.