Results from Las Vegas Where Dimity Bivol Upsets Canelo Alvarez

LAS VEGAS, NV — The presumption going into tonight’s big fight in Las Vegas between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Dmitry Bivol was that Bivol didn’t punch hard enough to worry the Mexican superstar, the consensus #1 pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. But while it was true that Bivol — who was making the eighth defense of his WBA 175-pound title — didn’t have much mustard on his punches, he was far busier and walked away with a well-deserved unanimous decision. The three judges scored it for the Kyrgyzstan-born Russian by identical 115-113 margins.

Canelo, a 6/1 favorite, had the best of the early going. In the second round, he worked the body effectively and it seemed that Bivol would eventually be worn down. But as the bout progressed, the well-conditioned Bivol started putting his punches together, utilizing his faster hands to land many multiple-punch combinations.

The crowd came to life in round 11 when it appeared for a moment that Canelo had imposed his will on Bivol, but that moment proved to be fleeting.  At the final bell, Bivol raised a gloved fist in a symbol of triumph.

Bivol, who reportedly had 283 amateur fights, improved his pro ledger to 20-0 (11) while ending Canelo’s 16-fight unbeaten streak. Canelo was 57-1-2 heading in with 39 kayos and hadn’t lost since 2013 when he lost a majority decision to Floyd Mayweather Jr. His next fight would supposedly come against Gennadiy Golovkin in September on Mexican Independence Day weekend, but that trilogy fight appears to be in limbo.

Co-Features

The co-feature was a 12-round junior welterweight contest between Cleveland’s Montana Love and Guadalajara’s Gabriel Gollaz Valenzuela. Love scored a flash knockdown in the opening round with a sweeping left hook that landed high on Valenzuela’s head. Valenzuela returned the favor in the next round, decking Love with the exact same punch. From that point on, the bout degenerated. There was more posturing and more feints than punches that actually landed. Periodically the crowd erupted in boos.

When the smoke clared, Love (18-0-1) remained unbeaten. All three judges had it 114-112 for the Buckeye. This reporter had it 114-112 for Valenzuela (25-3-1) in a bout that neither fighter deserved to win.

Shakhram Giyasov scored three knockdowns en route to a lopsided decision over Christian Gomez in a 10-round welterweight contest.  Giyasov, 13-0 (9), a 2016 Olympic silver medalist for Uzbekistan, had Guadalajara’s Gomez on the canvas in rounds four, seven, and 10. Gomez had his moments. He came back to stagger the Uzbek after suffering a dubious knockdown in round seven and hurt him again in the next stanza –far and away his best round of the fight– but Giyasov had too much class and won by scores of 98-89 and 99-88 twice.

China’s Big Bang

In the first match on the pay-per-view portion of the show, two-time Olympian Zhilei “Big Bang” Zhang, who is listed at six-foot-six and looks taller and is 39 years old and looks older, whacked out LA’s Scotty Alexander in the opening round. A straight left hand that wasn’t much more than a jab was perfectly placed and Alexander went down hard. The referee didn’t bother to count and it was all over in 114 seconds.

Zhang, who had a 54-pound weight advantage, improved to 24-0-1 (18 KOs) and stirred the pot for a match with Filip Hrgovic, his originally scheduled opponent. Alexander declined to 16-5-2.

Other Bouts

Zhang’s quick knockout converted Marc Castro’s match with Puerto Rico’s Pedro Scharbaai from a walkout-fight into a swing-fight. Fresno’s Castro, reportedly 177-7 as an amateur and now 7-0 (5) as a pro, won all six rounds of this lightweight scrap on all three scorecards, Scharbaii’s record dipped to 7-5-1.

Cancun, Mexico flyweight Joselito Valazquez, a 2016 Olympian, improved to 15-0-1 (10) with a sixth-round stoppage of Colombia’s Jose Soto (15-2). A short left hand brought a sudden conclusion to what had been a good action fight. The punch knocked Soto flat on his back. He got to his feet, but the referee waived it off. The official time was 1:06. Soto’s lone previous defeat had come by disqualification.

Monterrey, Mexico middleweight Aaron Silva (10-0, 7 KOs) scored the best win of his career with a fourth-round stoppage of Alexis Espino (9-1-1). Silva hurt Espino with a left hook to the liver and then followed up on his advantage, pummeling Espino against the ropes and forcing the stoppage which came at 1:17. A local fighter, Espino was a two-time national amateur champion dressing as a small underdog.

Junior lightweight Elnur Abduraimov, who trains in Indio, CA, improved to 9-0 (8 KOs) with a second-round stoppage of free-swinging Miami-based Cuban exile Manuel Correa (11-1). Abduraimov scored three knockdowns before the fight was waived off at the 2:43 mark of round two. A 27-year-old southpaw who has the same management as Dmitry Bivol, Abduraimov had his first seven pro fights before representing Uzbekistan in the Tokyo Olympics.

In the opener of the nine-bout card, Guadalajara’s 19-year-old junior welterweight prospect Fernando Molina had his hands full with San Diego’s Ricardo Valdovinos (8-2) but prevailed on a split decision. A knockdown made the difference with Molina winning by a 57-56 score on two of the cards.

Photo credit: Al Applerose

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