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Monday, May 9, 2022

Chilemba on Bivol's Win Against Canelo

Dmitry Bivol pulled off a stunning upset victory over Saul "Canelo" Alvarez this past Saturday night. Canelo, a 5/1 favorite was generally regarded as the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world when Bivol won the fight by unanimous decision with three scores of 115-113 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

On August 4, 2018, Bivol defeated Isaac Chilemba by unanimous decision (120-108 twice, 116-112) at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA. The Jewish Boxing Blog asked Chilemba about Bivol's performance this past weekend and how it compared to his fight against the Russian national who was born in Kyrgyzstan. Chilemba had some interesting answers.

"Bivol fought a very impressive fight; I'm very proud of him, " Chilemba said. "Before the fight I gave him no chance whatsoever, but he proved me and the world otherwise."

Canelo and Isaac are both counterpunchers who didn't counter much against Bivol. Perhaps Bivol's timely jab and his occasional but purposeful combinations prevented those counters from coming back. Chilemba didn't see it that way.

"I had huge personal issues the day before the fight which disrupted my performance," Chilemba revealed. "I can't say more of my performance that night as I wasn't myself." Surprisingly, he described Bivol as one of the easier of all his major opponents, which includes many world class foes.

Most humans would be impacted if they experienced issues just before a big event. Canelo is one of the few who can compartmentalize to the extreme. In the week before his December 15, 2018 fight against Rocky Fielding, Canelo's brother was kidnapped, and the star personally negotiated with his brother's captors to free him. Of course, Bivol is in a different class than Fielding is.

Chilemba is scheduled to fight next on May 27 against Osleys Iglesias at Hala Globus in Lublin, Poland. Isaac said the bout is at super middleweight and is for a couple of international title belts. Chilemba missed the 168 weight limit in his last fight against Pavel Silyagin in November.

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