Bivol vs. Canelo Odds: Alvarez to continue his winning streak in style
We've got another huge fight in the Light-Heavyweight division with a clash for the WBA Super World Title between the current champion Dmitry Bivol and the four-weight world champion Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez. We've asked our boxing head honcho @OddsT3rrier to preview this one and provide us with his best bets for the contest.
Dmitry Bivol vs. Canelo Alvarez Tips
Where and when is the fight taking place?
The fight will be at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, on Saturday May 7th and will be broadcast live and exclusively on DAZN PPV. The event will start at 1am with the ring walks for the main event expected around 5am. The card is a Matchroom promotion by Eddie Hearn.
Full Fight card:
Order and times TBC
- MAIN EVENT: Canelo Alvarez vs Dmitry Bivol – for WBA (Super) light heavyweight title
- Montana Love vs Gabriel Gollaz Valenzuela
- Zhilei Zhang vs TBA
- Shakhram Giyasov vs Christian Gomez
- Joselito Velazquez vs Jose Soto
- Alexis Espino vs Aaron Silva
- Marc Castro vs Pedro Vicente Scharbaai
- Elnur Abduraimov vs Manuel Correa
Main fight officials:
Referee:
- Russell Mora (Nevada)
Judges:
- Tim Cheatham (Nevada)
- Dave Moretti (Nevada)
- Steve Weisfeld (New Jersey)
This has been another calm and respectful fight build up between two dignified fighters. What happened to the days of throwing punches, glasses and tables at each other in press launches and fight week? Canelo and Bivol obviously don't have English as their first language but you could see the level of respect on show at the kick-off press conference back in March.
The defending champion Bivol enters this contest as an unbeaten fighter, the 12th unbeaten fighter Canelo has faced in his long and illustrious career.
- January 20 2006: Miguel Vazquez (debut) Split decision.
- February 10 2006: Pedro Lopez (0-0-1) First round KO.
- March 2 2007: Javier Martinez (debut) Eighth round KO
- April 18 2008: Gabriel Martinez (17-0-1) RTD round 11
- February 21 2009: Euri Gonzalez (17-0-1) Eleventh round KO
- April 20 2013: Austin Trout (26-0) Unanimous decision.
- September 17 2016: Liam Smith (23-0-1) Ninth round KO.
- September 15 2018: Gennady Golovkin (38-0-1) Majority decision.
- December 19 2020: Callum Smith (27-0) Unanimous decision.
- May 8 2021: Billy Joe Saunders (30-0) RTD Round 8
- November 6 2021: Caleb Plant (21-0) Eleventh round KO
Obviously the one undefeated fighter that Alvarez couldn't beat was Floyd 'Money' Mayweather, but since that fight back in 2013, he has put together one of the most impressive runs of any boxer in recent times and in the process became a four weight World Champion, unifying the title in three of those weights and becoming the lineal champ in two. Has he taken a step too far here against a Light Heavyweight who is in the prime of his career and is widely ranked as one of the top fighters in his weight class?
The 31-year-old Russian was a decorated amateur and turned pro quite late, back in 2014 and has only fought relatively sporadically, with 19 bouts in eight years since. There are also a few questions over the quality of the men he has beaten in that time and in recent fights has shown a lack of power, winning his last six fights via points.
Those are not accusations that can be levelled at his more famous opponent this weekend, who turned pro at 15 and has fought 60 times since.
Onto the fight itself...
Canelo is best price 1/4 to win this one against the bigger man. Those are not odds I like backing at any time but I have no problem with the bookmakers judgement. Alvarez has fought at a consistently higher level with Bivol and will be way too quick and elusive for the big Russian to hit and catch. Canelo showed in his fight versus Sergey Kovalev exactly what the game plan will be for this one. Hit and move and wear the bigger man down with his concussive shots, before hopefully taking him out in the later rounds.
With that in mind I've sided with Canelo to win the fight by KO/TKO at 13/5. The 8/11 on a points win is far too short given Alvarez's punch power.
My next pick is a doubling down on my first selection. I fancy Canelo to be wary during the first half of the fight and will stay at range, popping off shots and combos whilst staying out of range of Bivol's long straight shots. His head movement is legendary and he is so hard to hit, as Daniel Jacobs and others found out to their detriment. Once we enter the second half the of the fight I think Canelo will come more into the pocket and start landing big heavy body and head shots and eventually chop down the bigger man.
I've taken the 9/2 on offer at Paddy Power for Canelo to win in rounds 7-12.
Again my last selection is a bit of a long odds punt. I've taken the 25/1 on Alvarez to stop Bivol in round eight and will be having a small nibble on it as my third and final pick.
The featured bookmakers for these bets all have welcome free bet offers. Follow the links to qualify if you haven't got an account with any of the following:
- Paddy Power - Bet £20 and get it back as cash if it loses - Ts & C's apply
- Betfred - Bet £10 and get £60 in bonuses - Ts & C's apply
Enjoy the fight and remember to gamble responsibly.
