I’ve been in the game 50 years and it’s an education for me to watch WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol at work.
Like Vasyl Lomachenko he has brought his elite amateur style into the pro game. That is very unusual. It is fascinating how both move. Their balance is perfect, which gives them their platform.
It starts with the feet. Bivol’s are fantastic, so fast with short movements. Normally when you get into the pro game you lose that characteristic because you are trying to sit down on your shots.
Even in a small ring Bivol is effective because of his ability to judge distance. He has retained that bounce from the amateurs but yet he is not upright. He makes himself small and gets his punches off.
I admit downgrading Bivol after the Craig Richards fight last year. That was a mistake. I didn’t give Richards enough credit for a start. He is a very good fighter.
But the way Bivol subsequently dealt with Saul Alvarez set me right. Anybody who can stand in the middle and boss Canelo is a serious talent. And the more I see of him the more I respect him. He is in against another Mexican in Abu Dhabi on Saturday night. Gilberto Ramirez is a big, tough southpaw.
They are both the same age, 31, but come from very different schools. Mexico does not invest in the amateurs the way Russia does. Ramirez turned pro at 18, five years before Bivol, and has had twice as many pro bouts.
Ramirez is much more orthodox. He is also bigger than Canelo with a long reach and great chin. Still unbeaten and full of energy he could make this a monumental struggle for Bivol early on.
Against Canelo, Bivol was never in a position to be hit. He took away the centre of the ring from Canelo by going at him. Canelo likes to back you against the ropes. Bivol never let him. But this guy presents a different kind of challenge, three inches taller than Bivol and with a longer reach.
After racking up 25 wins on Mexican cards Ramirez has spent the last nine years making a name for himself in the States and the last three at light-heavyweight. Making the super-middleweight limit was always a struggle and he has carried his power up, stopping all five opponents at 175 pounds.
He won’t find Bivol as easy to catch and as the fight wears on he will begin to feel the champion’s penetrating right and dangerous left hook. Bivol on points for me, by a wide margin.
- Follow Barry on Twitter at @ClonesCyclone @McGuigans_Gym
