Saul ‘Canelo‘ Alvarez beat Edgar Berlanga last month to retain his unified super-middleweight world titles in relatively routine fashion.

The Mexican dropped Berlanga on the way to a wide points decision, keeping his belts and moving ahead to what’s next. For him, that would ideally be a rematch with Dmitry Bivol after the Russian handed him just the second loss of his career back in 2022.

Speaking to Fight Hub TV, Bivol was asked what he thought about his rival’s latest performance, praising the knockdown and the tactics used to score it.

“I didn’t watch the full fight to be honest. I saw the knockdown with the left hook. It was a really good knockdown. It was his signature, to make you think he wants to get to the body but he [throws] a hook. But I didn’t watch the full fight because I don’t need to watch [his] fights for [my] preparation.”

On the prospect of a second run-in with Canelo, Bivol said that he was fully focused on Artur Beterbiev on October 12 for the undisputed light-heavyweight championship.

“I don’t think about Canelo because I have my fight. We had one and a half years waiting, does he want to fight or doesn’t he? It was only talks and no action. It’s a closed subject. I’m busy now with Beterbiev and we will see what will happen after.”

Previous talks for a rematch fell apart over a disagreement on the weight – Bivol expressed an interest in moving down to challenge for Canelo’s belts whilst the Mexican wanted to return to light-heavyweight as per the first fight.