After enjoying a hero's reception on his Guadalajara homecoming, it was a case of mission accomplished for Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez on Saturday night. Well, apart from not getting the knockout he promised.
The undisputed super middleweight champion bust John Ryder's nose with an uppercut in round two and decked the challenger heavily in the fifth.
Ryder fought gamely to hear the final bell, even enjoying some late success as Canelo coasted to a wide unanimous decision win, his left hand seemingly coming through a first post-surgery outing unscathed.
It was time to turn attention towards what's next and the name on Alvarez's lips was the one you sense has dominated most of his waking thoughts for the past year.
"Everybody knows we want [Dmitry] Bivol. The rematch with Bivol," Canelo told DAZN in the ring afterwards. "If the fight with Bivol doesn't happen, then we'll see. I'm able to fight everybody."
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Bivol boxed masterfully at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on May 7, 2022, becoming only the second man after Floyd Mayweather Jr to beat Canelo in his storied career.
The fight was up at light heavyweight for Bivol's WBA title, Canelo having briefly held the WBO version of the 175lbs championship after stepping up to dethrone Sergey Kovalev in 2019.
Asked whether he wanted the fight to take place at the higher weight class once again, he was unequivocal.
"Yeah. Same rules, same terms, same everything. I want it in that way," Canelo said.
Music to Bivol's ears. Or so you would think.
Is Canelo getting a rematch with Bivol?
Considering both men have ties to Matchroom and DAZN, perhaps the only obstacle to making Canelo vs. Bivol 2 is the fact that the unbeaten Russian stylist appears to be wired in exactly the same way as his rival.
Canelo underscored his thirst to take on the biggest challenges available when he moved up to the 12-stone division and cleaned it out, beating previously undefeated trio Callum Smith, Billy Joe Saunders and Caleb Plant to unify the four major belts.
His previous reign at middleweight featuring 155lbs catchweight bouts with Miguel Cotto and Amir Khan showed the pound-for-pound superstar is not averse to stacking the deck in his favour, but this final stage of his career is clearly all about legacy.
It turns out Bivol thinks the same way.
"It could happen, this fight, but it doesn't motivate me as much as it did before," he said of facing Canelo in a return prior to disarming the hulking Gilberto "Zurdo" Ramirez over 12 one-sided rounds in Abu Dhabi last November. "Of course, I would take this fight if I don't have another choice. We could make this fight but it's not my priority fight now."
For Bivol, Canelo part two in his own weight class amounted to going over old ground. However, speaking after the Ramirez win, the 31-year-old explained that a bout for all the belts at super middleweight would be a different matter entirely.
"When I was an amateur, I was fighting first of all against my weight at 75kg and second against my opponent," he said. "I decided that I don't want to make weight but in the pros I worked with some nutritionists and I learned how to make weight easy.
"Before [the Ramirez] weigh-in, I had dinner, I had a small breakfast and then I came to the scales. I think we could talk about it [making 168], of course. It's not my preference, but we could."
Bivol has banged this drum ever since, with his enthusiasm for the challenge crystalising.
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"In terms of weight class, it's my goal to hold all four belts. Of course I want to fight him at 168," he told The Sporting News last month. "I prefer to fight at 168. I could put my [WBA light heavyweight] belt on the line and we could fight for five belts.
"I don't want to fight again at 175. It's an excuse for [Canelo] that it's not his weight class again. Let's do it at another weight class."
Of all the reasons for a superfight not to happen, both men demanding to fight at a weight that would theoretically benefit their opponent might rank among the most perversely noble in boxing's strange history.
But it's hard to deny that Bivol makes a very strong case. The instinct of the boxing purist is to run a mile from a champion, especially one undefeated and so esteemed, cutting weight unnecessarily for a payday. You should come up and beat the man on his turf. Canelo is long enough in the game to know that some critics would be falling over themselves to place an asterisk alongside any victory over Bivol at super middleweight.
These are the terms his conqueror has set, though. For six months, Bivol has said he wants Canelo at 168. No one is forcing his hand. And it is the more compelling contest with greater jeopardy.
What has Canelo done, in boxing terms, to earn another shot at the light heavyweight title? He has not campaigned at the weight class since losing to Bivol and his wins have come over a faded Gennadiy Golovkin and Ryder on his first venture up to elite level. Bivol befuddled a far bigger man in Ramirez, to whom he dealt a maiden career defeat. What in that combined body of work suggests Alvarez is now ready to beat the best 175lbs fighter on the planet?
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Of course, Canelo's colossal drawing power means this whole equation probably shakes out however he wants it to. But the hope is that he recognises a kindred spirit and rewards Bivol's desire to take what he has toiled for.
If Canelo fights Bivol at light heavyweight again and loses as an underdog, it would be the expected result and one to be greeted with a mass shrug of the shoulders. A rematch at 168lbs would whet the appetite far more. If Canelo won to defend his undisputed championship, he would absolutely have earned a rubber match at light heavyweight in a contest with the narrative richness to be a gargantuan event.
After a legacy-feathering third fight against Golovkin and a relatively risk-free homecoming against Ryder, it is time for Canelo to roll the dice again and take the highest-stakes test on offer. And that is Dmitry Bivol at 168lbs for the undisputed world championship.
