Bivol’s Popularity Will Soar With Victory Over Beterbiev

Dmitry Bivol’s popularity Will go through the roof if he’s victorious in his fight against Artur Beterbiev on October 12th. Bivol has more to gain if he wins because Canelo Alvarez says he’s interested in fighting him next in May, but not with Beterbiev.

Canelo has run out of marketable options to fight at 168 other than Terence Crawford, who would be moving up to the weight class for the payday. No one believes Crawford would stand any chance. This is just a money fight for Crawford and the promoters who would stage it if Canelo agreed.

If Canelo stays at 168 for his next fight in May, these would be his options if he chooses not to fight Crawford:

– Christian Mbilli
– Diego Pacheco
– Caleb Plant
– Trevor McCumby
– Jermall Charlo

WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol (23-0, 12 KOs) and IBF, WBC, and WBO champ Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs) fight on ESPN+ in Riyadh.

It will take a lot for Bivol to defeat Beterbiev because he knows how to deal with movers. Bivol is a combination puncher, and those types do poorly against Beterbiev.

“If Bivol beats Beterbiev, it’s going to be a great fight because it’s almost impossible to be in a bad fight with Artur Beterbiev,” said Chris Mannix on his podcast about the Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol fight on October 12th.

“Either Bivol will stop Beterbiev in that fight, or he’ll have to dig deep to win a decision. So, he will have some momentum. Not just having all the belts at 175, but he’ll have the momentum of coming off a tremendous performance that a lot of people would watch that,” Mannix continued about the Bivol-Beterbiev fight.

Bivol’s stock would rise from a win over Beterbiev, making a rematch between him and Canelo huge with fans. Of course, if Beterbiev wins, Canelo will have to come up with other plans because he’s not interested in fighting him. That’s a dangerous fight for Canelo, and there wouldn’t be the revenge angle like there would if he fought Bivol.

If Canelo also loses to Beterbiev, it will likely be a bad knockout, and then he’ll have another loss to avenge on top of the Bivol defeat.

“A lot of people would see on social media, and that’s a bounce that he would benefit as well. If Bivol wins, I think it’s going to be Bivol [that Canelo Alvarez fights next May].

“Belts are not relevant, but to call yourself undisputed in another weight class [175] or have a chance to do it. I think that matters to Canelo, and I think he’d push for that fight to happen. If he [Bivol] loses [to Beterbiev], it’s got to be Terence Crawford, but how does that fight get made because it’s going to cost $100 million to get them both in the ring at least?”

The fight between Canelo and Crawford will only happen if Turki Alalashikh wants it badly enough because Canelo is indifferent to fighting Crawford. He sees it as a no-win fight because he won’t get credit if he wins. No matter how good Canelo looks, fans will criticize him afterward.

Crawford will be the only one who comes out ahead in that fight. He will make his biggest payday and will have an excuse to tell fans if he loses.

All Crawford has to do is go the 12-round distance or be competitive, and it would be a moral victory. It would be just like Edgar Berlanga, who is being praised for going the full 12 rounds against Canelo, even though he lost every round. Despite Canelo winning, he hasn’t received much appreciation from fans. Berlanga is teh one that fans are complimenting, and he just came to survive. Crawford could do the same, and he’ll be knighted afterward for his valor. I

“Does Turki Alalshikh have the appetite to make that fight happen after Crawford was in a fight that wasn’t particularly entertaining [against Israil Madrimov on August 3rd]? If Crawford had stopped Madrimov in the fifth round, I think that would have built up the buzz for a Canelo fight,” said Mannix.

Crawford’s performance against Madrimov on August 3rd was underwhelming and one of the least entertaining efforts on the entire card. Going into that fight, Crawford wasn’t well known or well-liked by casual boxing fans. He’d only been involved in one marketable fight his entire career, and that was against Errol Spence last year.

The PPV success for that fight was due to Spence. Crawford just came along for the ride, and contributed very little to that fight in terms of PPV buys.  Casual fans don’t know who Crawford is, and they won’t be excited by Canelo choosing him. They’d rather see Canelo fight David Benavidez and many other fighters than they would Crawford.

“But as it stands, Crawford coming away with kind of a so-so, pretty close win. I wonder if that makes Turki Alalshikh say, ‘I’ll pay for this fight, but I’m not going to go super big for this fight.

“I might have been low-balling that because Canelo has made it clear that if this fight happens, it’s going to happen on his terms, and you’re going to have to present him with a big bag,” about it likely costing more than $100 million for Turki to make the Canelo-Crawford fight because Canelo will want $100 million+ for him to agree to fight Crawford.

Canelo has already said that he wants $150 million, and even if he is willing to take less, it would still likely be in the $100M range. With Crawford likely wanting big money do and his last fight against Israil Madrimov reportedly bringing in poor PPV numbers, it doesn’t sound realistic that a Canelo match can happen.