Dmitry Bivol upsets Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez to retain title

LAS VEGAS — WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol retained his title by defeating Saul “Canelo” Alvarez by unanimous decision Saturday night.

Undefeated Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs), who has worn a version of his belt since May 2016, handed Alvarez (57-2-2, 39 KOs) just his second loss of his career.

Alvarez rose again to the heaviest weight of his career to contend for the 175-pound title.

Alvarez fought just one other time in his career at light heavyweight, beating Sergey Kovalev in late 2019.

After opening the fight with a trio of very close rounds, it was clear that Bivol could use his advantages in range and height to pepper Alvarez and keep him away when attacking with his power punches.

Alvarez sometimes tried to taunt Bivol with his intimidating tactics.

With a rematch clause in the contract, Alvarez said in the ring afterward that he wanted a rematch with the Kyrgyzstan-born Russian champion.

Bivol replied, “No problem.”

In the co-main event at 140 pounds, Montana Love (18-0-1, 10 KOs) beat Gabriel Valenzuela (25-3-1, 15 KOs) by unanimous decision with identical scores from all three judges (114-112). . The win cements Love as a junior welterweight contender.

Shakhram Giyasov (13-0, 9 KOs) defeated Christian Gomez (22-3-1, 20 KOs) unanimously (98-89, 99-88, 99-88) in a 10-round welterweight bout.

Marc Castro (7-0, 5 KOs) won by unanimous decision (60-54) over Pedro Vicente (7-5-1, 2 KOs).

Zhilei Zhang (24-0-1, 19 KOs) defeated Scott Alexander by just 1:54 in the first round in a heavyweight bout. Alexander was a backup after Filip Hrgovic was forced to pull out of his scheduled fight against Zhang.

Earlier on Saturday, Joselito Velazquez (15-0-1, 10 KOs) won by a TKO in the 6th round over Jose Soto (15-2, 6 KOs).

Aaron Silva (10-0, 7 KOs) defeated Alexis Espino (9-1-1, 6 KOs) via TKO in the fourth round.

Elnur Abduraimov (9-0, 8 KOs) won by TKO in the second round over Manny Correa (11-1, 7 KOs).

Fernando Molina (8-0, 3 KOs) won a split decision against Ricardo Valdovinos (8-2, 5 KOs) 58-56, 57-56 for Molina and 57-56 for Valdavinos.