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Canelo Alvarez talks Dmitry Bivol, fighting Oleksandr Usyk, his desire to golf with Tiger Woods, and more

Canelo Alvarez is focused on Dmitry Bivol, but took on some other topics in a sitdown with Ak and Barak.

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Canelo Alvarez talks Dmitry Bivol and more ahead of Saturday’s fight
Scott Christ is the managing editor of Bad Left Hook and has been covering boxing for SB Nation since 2006.

Canelo Alvarez is just over 24 hours away from his next fight, as the Mexican superstar is set to challenge Dmitry Bivol for the WBA light heavyweight title in a DAZN pay-per-view main event from Las Vegas.

Ahead of the fight, Canelo (57-1-2, 39 KO) sat down with The DAZN Boxing Show to discuss the fight and more.

On Bivol being a bigger fighter

“I’m comfortable fighting anybody, any size...(because of) my experience and my skills. When you’re at this level, you need to adapt yourself to any style. I’ve fought with every style, every size. At this point, I can adapt myself to anybody.”

On how long he plans to keep fighting

“Six years more. But you never know, right? Maybe I’ll take it easy. Six more years, and then fight one time a year.”

On pursuing golf professionally

“No. You need to start when you’re young. Golf is so hard, so difficult. If you want to be a pro, it’s difficult. I spend a lot of hours practicing, so you never know, but I need to be — I love (challenges)!”

On the idea of fighting Oleksandr Usyk

“I don’t know (how I’d fight him). I can do anything, but it’s crazy to say. But as a fighter, I love the idea, right? No disrespect to Usyk. I say Usyk because he’s a really good fighter. I’ve watched him a lot, he’s a really good fighter. It’s crazy, but I like the idea. Why not? Maybe one day.”

On what he’d say to Muhammad Ali

“He inspired me in many ways. Personally as well as boxing. He did a really good job with boxing, he helped a lot for us as fighters. He put that (Ali Rule) in boxing. He inspired me.”

On what his best win would be if he retired now

“I don’t know. (Miguel) Cotto, (Gennadiy) Golovkin, (Sergey) Kovalev — I don’t (have a favorite), no. Not now.”

On whom he respects most of those he’s fought

“Cotto. Because he was my idol before. I watched a lot of his fights before I fought him, to learn. So maybe Cotto.”

On Bivol being better than Artur Beterbiev

“Yeah. Better fighter, yes. Much better. Beterbiev is a really strong fighter, going forward, but he’s right there. He’s just strong. But Bivol is a really good fighter, he has a really good jab, good moves, he’s strong.”

On his reputation for “starting slow” and what round it “clicks”

“It depends on the opponent. Maybe it’s early, maybe it’s later. I think with Bivol I need to start early, because he has the stamina to go through 12 rounds in the same condition. I think I need to start early.”

On possibly unifying with the Beterbiev vs Smith winner

“I like the idea. But first things first, I need to beat Bivol first and see how I feel in this weight class, but I like the idea a lot.”

On his dream foursome in golf

“Tiger (Woods), Jon Rahm, and Brooks Koepka.”

On what we should expect Saturday

“You never know with me. ... Every shot (will hurt him). I hope it doesn’t go the distance. But you never know, I have a really good fighter in front of me, but I’m going to try (for the KO) for sure.”

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