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Boxing
How does Dmitry Bivol beat Canelo Alvarez?
Check for Canelo vs. Bivol on DAZN in your country
Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez is being labelled the favourite ahead of his fight with WBA world light-heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol this Saturday live on DAZN (except Mexico and Latin America).
However, despite coming up against boxing's pound-for-pound king, there is a chance Bivol could shock the world and retain his title on Cinco de Mayo weekend.
DAZN Boxing analyst Sergio Mora broke down the fight on JABS and believes that Bivol will need to target Canelo's body throughout the contest.
"You need two out of the three things Bivol has, and has to do, and that’s the jab and the power," Mora said.
"We know that Bivol can control with his power jab, he’s going to have to show different jabs to trick and lure Canelo.
"He’s going to need to win those early rounds and put those in the bank, the middle rounds he’s going to need ring generalship, stay off the ropes, keep the fight in the middle of the ring going clockwise and counterclockwise.
"Bivol was a power puncher at super middleweight, we haven’t seen a lot of it once his competition stepped up, but that’s expected.
"If you dig down to the body you can catch Canelo, especially whenever Canelo has the elbows tucked in, so Bivol has the jab, the power, the intelligence and he can be calculating and disciplined as well.
"Put all that together and Bivol can shock the world."
Chris Mannix also explained how Bivol could topple the Mexican in Las Vegas on Saturday night by going toe-to-toe with Canelo.
"If I was going to whittle it down to one thing, it’s that Bivol has to be willing to trade punches with Canelo Alvarez," Mannix began.
"We have not seen an opponent of Canelo’s do that since Gennadiy Golovkin in their second fight in 2018.
"You look at the opponents after that whether it be Daniel Jacobs at middleweight, Callum Smith or Billy Joe Saunders at super middleweight, Sergey Kovalev at light heavyweight, the gameplan has largely been based on the jab.
"That can be an effective scoring punch, but I don’t think you can beat Canelo with the jab, eventually you’re going to get knocked out or you don’t throw enough punches to win any kind of decision.
"Bivol’s got a good power jab, a scoring jab, that he can use in this fight, but he has got to get in the trenches in the middle of the ring, throw those right hands, back Canelo Alvarez up when he can."
