WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol has dismissed talks about second fight with the undisputed super middleweight champion Saul Alvarez prior to his title defence against Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez on November 5th.
Bivol became the second fighter to beat the Mexican, with the other being Floyd Mayweather. Canelo and Bivol faced earlier this year, but Bivol’s power and height advantage were too much for Canelo.
In just a couple of weeks Gilbeto Ramirez will try to take the WBA belt away from Bivol, but that’d be a tough task.
The champion was asked about his plans if he manages to beat Zurdo and if there’s any chance and talks for a rematch. But obviously, that is not the case as of this moment.
“Of course, I feel great in my training camp; everything is ok. We have everything for a great training camp,” said Dmitry Bivol to Fighthype about his upcoming title defense against Gilberto Ramirez on November 5th.
“I feel confident, and I have enough sparring partners, everything. I’m in Abu Dhabi [for camp]. It’s good to be in the mountains. It’s good for conditioning.
“Of course, I do everything to be in great shape and good feelings. Sometimes you don’t know how it will be. Everything is okay in training camp, and on the day of the fight something is wrong, but we try to do everything to be perfect,” said Bivol when asked if there could be a possibility of him not performing at as high a standard as he did against Canelo Alvarez.
“I believe I can beat him. I have good skills, and I’ll try to do everything to beat him. I felt I was on that level, which I was against Canelo. Now people know that my level is good. Before, they didn’t think I was good.
“I’ll try to be better every time, of course. If you’re worse than last time, something is wrong. You have to tweak something. I’ll try to be better, of course, in this fight against Zurdo, too.
“I just respect him as a fighter and nothing more,” Bivol said about Gilberto Ramirez. “I have respect for him because he was a champion at 168. It’s a big deal. He has 44 fights and 0 losses. It’s a big deal, too.
“This is what motivates me to beat him. I want to be the first. I didn’t see this fight,” said Bivol when asked if he felt that Canelo had shown improvement since their fight when he battled Gennadiy Golovkin last September.
“Of course, for my soul, for my pride, and for my history, I want to have my belts. I want to take this chance to fight for many belts,” said Bivol when asked if he prefers a fight against IBF/WBC/WBO light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev for his next match-up over a rematch with Canelo. “It’s great.
“Yes, yes, exactly,” said Bivol when asked if it would be a stamp of how great he is if he could win more belts at 175. “He’s huge, so huge,” said Bivol about his recent meeting with retired basketball player Shaquille O’Neal.
“I’m really glad to see a man like Shaq because when I was young, I only saw him on TV and he was really famous.
“Still work hard to follow the plan of my coach and so everything that he said. It will make me more confident. When I do all the work that he tells me, it makes me more confident.
“If I don’t do something, some small enemy in my head makes me a little less confident. But I have to work what my coach said,” said Bivol.
