Canelo Alvarez Makes Oleksandr Gvozdyk His Sparring Partner

Canelo Alvarez Makes Oleksandr Gvozdyk Sparring Partner. Boxing News Canelo Alvarez has added former WBC light heavyweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk to his team as one of his sparring partners. To help him prepare for his title challenge against 175-lb WBA champion Dmitry Bivol on May 7 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Sports News site Canelo added Ukrainian talent Gvozdyk (17-1, 14 KOs) to help him prepare for the tough challenge of undefeated Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs). Gvozdyk has been retiring for the last 2 1/2 years since being stopped by IBF light heavyweight champion Artur Beterbiev in the tenth round in October 2019. However, recently there have been talks about the 34-year-old Gvozdyk returning. The sparring assistance Canelo got from Gvozyk proved invaluable in helping him prepare for the 31-year-old Russia Bivol.

As such, Gvozdyk’s fighting style is different from Bivol’s, so it’s unclear if he will be enough to help Canelo to victory. The main difference between Bivol and Gvozdyk is in the area of ​​mobility and combination hitting. Bivol is a much better mover and combination hitter than Gvozdyk during his career. One area where Gvozyk has a slight edge over Bivol is in the electricity department. Gvozyk has better strength than Bivol, but that didn’t help him when he fought Beterbiev in 2019. Gvozyk came off the back of an 11th-round knockout win over 41-year-old Adonis ‘Superman’ Stevenson in December 2018, tragically resulting in left-handers suffering a brain injury that ended his successful career. However, Stevenson injured Gvozyk in the ninth and tenth rounds with great left-handed shots and looked set to win the fight in the eleventh.

Sparring To Get Valuable Tips

When the Ukrainian boxer fired 10 punches, Adonis collapsed. Another reason Canelo uses Gvozdyk as one of his sparring partners is to get valuable tips. Which he can use later when/if he challenges 175-lb IBF/WBC champion Artur Beterbiev. If Gennadiy Golovkin loses to Ryota Murata this Saturday and Canelo beats Bivol on May 7, the Mexican star will face the winner of the unification fight Beterbiev vs. Joe Smith Jr. in September. That’s what Canelo’s coach/manager, Eddy Reynoso, said this week. Beterbiev fought early against Gvozdyk, but once he started attacking his body at the midpoint of the fight. He quickly knocked him down with those shots. In the tenth, Gvozdyk had nothing left and was beaten by Beterbiev with a series of shots. But it needs to prove itself from Gvozdyk.

Beterbiev will likely use the same approach against Canelo if the two fight this year in September. He would ignore Canelo’s head and focus on his midsection. All the upper body moves Canelo learned from Floyd Mayweather Jr. wouldn’t help him dodge Beterbiev’s body shot. However you look at it, Beterbie is a bad style partner for Canelo. Beterbiev’s face-to-face combat and emphasis on body shots will be a nightmare for Canelo. He has stamina issues and doesn’t handle body shots as well as he does with headshots. However, not many people know about this. There wasn’t much Gvozdyk could have told him to beat Beterbiev other than making sure he stayed on his bike for 12 rounds.

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