By Sean Jones: Dmitry Bivol’s two wins over Canelo Alvarez and Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ has made him Paulie Malignaggi & ESPN’s Fighter of the 12 months for 2023.
Bivol’s victories over the famous person Canelo and the beforehand unbeaten former WBO tremendous middleweight champion Zurdo Ramirez (44-1, 30 KOs) made him recognized to many informal boxing followers, who’d by no means seen him battle and didn’t know of his existence within the sport.
As Malignaggi factors out, Bivol “crossed over to the mainstream” in boxing. He’s now been adopted by American followers as considered one of their very own.
We witnessed that lately when Bivol was mobbed by followers when he attended a latest battle in Southern California.
Bivol actually had followers throughout him, placing their arms round him, hugging, and giving him the crimson carpet-treatment that’s normally reserved for stars like Canelo.
Even Gennadiy Golovkin wasn’t handled with such reverence as we noticed with followers displaying their admiration for Bivol. It was like he was royalty. Bivol loved it, letting the followers paw him, and he appeared so relaxed and proud of the love he was receiving from them.
The best way that Bivol (21-0, 11 KOs) effortlessly defeated Canelo (58-2-2, 39 KOs) and averted Zurdo Ramirez opened folks’s eyes, revealing his expertise.
Bivol made Canelo seem like a second-rate, unschooled fighter from begin to end. It was laughable how befuddled Canelo appeared within the ring towards the proficient Russian Bivol, and it had nothing to do with the peak & attain distinction between the 2.
Bivol was the general better-schooled fighter than Canelo, as he beat him in shut, center vary, and out of doors.
“For me, Dmitry Bivol is the fighter of the yr,” stated Paulie Malignaggi to Paulie TV about his Fighter of the 12 months for 2023. “I feel he’s just about everyone’s total Fighter of the 12 months proper now.
“With a strong win over Canelo, which is what put him on the map so far as crossing over to the mainstream notoriety after which beating Zurdo Ramirez, who was form of the boogeyman in boxing and other people had been avoiding together with his 44-0 file with the world championships that he received and so forth and so forth.
“It was a terrific win for Dmitry Bivol over Zurdo Ramirez as properly. These two wins for me put him as my fighter of the yr,” stated Malignaggi.
Subsequent yr, Bivol has IBF, WBC & WBO gentle heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev as his #1 alternative for the battle that he needs. After beating Canelo, Bivol is now not excited by revisiting that battle, as he has different mountains to climb and sees no level in reconquering that tiny mud hill.
