Eddie Hearn Questions Canelo's Future After Defeat By Bivol

Ediie Hearn di antara Canelo Alvarez and Dmitry Bivol (Instgaram @eddiehearn)

JAKARTA - British boxing promoter Eddie Hearn has questioned Canelo Alvarez's future in the higher divisions after his loss to Russian boxer Dmitry Bivol.

Canelo is considered the best cross-divisional boxer in the world ahead of Sunday morning's bout as he progressed from super middleweight to light heavyweight. But, the Mexican boxer lost by unanimous points in an intense fight.

"It's easy to talk about it after the fight, isn't it?" said Hearn in an interview with SB Nation's 'Bad Left Hook', dismissing claims that Canelo's loss had anything to do with his weight gain.

"But no one said it's too ambitious, but it's hard to achieve. There are a lot of people in boxing who think it's going to be a very tough fight, and some even voted for Dmitry Bivol, but we can't say it's too ambitious because if we had a conversation this (before the fight) we would have said, 'Oh, he's a heavy favourite,' and we were."

Hearn also didn't want to spoil Bivol's win by focusing a lot on Canelo's mistakes during the fight.

"We don't know if it was a mix of a bit of fatigue from Canelo, the weight, I don't know, did he have a good camp? I don't know," said Hearn.

“But don't forget the brilliance of Dmitry Bivol. She is absolutely perfect. And I think after the wins against Craig Richards and Lenin Castillo, you don't have to look at him and think he put in a performance like that against a cross-division number one fighter."

After the defeat, Hearn also explained plans for a meeting with Eddy Reynoso, and plans for another fight in 2022.

"It seems Canelo wants to put himself at a disadvantage to take on the toughest challenges, and that can sometimes backfire," he admits.

"So now we have to sit down with Eddy (Reynoso) and say, 'We want to activate the rematch (against Bivol) or we want a duel in the 168 pound category'. But we don't see him wanting to avenge that loss."