Boxing is a sport that, except for one specific scenario, relies entirely on judgment to decree a winner. Thus, barring the occurrence of a knockout, the three judges at ringside are the ones who determine whose hand will be raised. In view of this, Dmitry Bivol's team has already spoken out and issued a warning in case the judges have to determine the winner of his May 7 fight against Canelo Alvarez.

Dmitry Bivol's record does not offer him a great chance of expecting a knockout: of his 19 fights, all wins, in 11 he has done so by knockout. In fact, his last knockout came in March 2018 against Cuban Sullivan Barrera in the first defense of his WBA World Light heavyweight title.

For his part, Canelo Alvarez has a higher knockout win percentage than Bivol, but the Mexican superstar is not a fighter who is used to defining his fights with one punch. Of his last 10 fights, only in one has he won by knockout: precisely at 175 pounds when he snatched the WBO World title from Sergey Kovalev.

Canelo Alvarez vs Dmitry Bivol judges, warned

Facing a very possible scenario in which the fight to be held at the T-Mobile Arena between Canelo Alvarez and Dmitry Bivol will have to be settled by the judges' scorecards, the Russian fighter's promoter, Vadim Kornilov, said he was calm about the quality of his charge but issued a warning.

“At the end of the day, you know, with everything that’s happened overall in boxing history, our goal is just to come in and try to win the fight and do the best we can... the panel is actually a top-level panel and all the judges are very, pretty much respectable, you know? And judges make mistakes sometimes in certain fights. But at the end of the day, if you win the fight a hundred percent, we’re morally and ethically clear because we did what we were supposed to do. And to them, whatever they do, they’re gonna have to live with that the rest of their lives.", stated Kornilov according to Boxing Scene.

The WBA World Light heavyweight title fight between Canelo Alvarez and Dmitry Bivol will be judged by Tim Cheatham, Dave Moretti, and Steve Weisfeld. All three have previously judged the Mexican fighter's fights: Cheatham 1 (Billy Joe Saunders), Moretti 11, Weisfeld, 5 

Throughout his career, Canelo Alvarez has had some controversial ratings awarded by judges, such as that card that saw him win against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013, or the judge who gave him a very wide margin victory over Gennady Golovkin in 2017.