Roy Jones Jr and Paulie Malignaggi have explained why Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez struggled against Dmitry Bivol.

Canelo Alvarez suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Russian earlier this month, losing on points by unanimous decision.

Alvarez was unable to cope with Bivol's sheer size and power and the WBA light heavyweight champion made it very difficult for him to land his signature exaggerated overhand right.

He came into the contest as the much smaller man, giving up almost two inches in height and reach, and unfortunately for Canelo, he was unable to close the gap to make up for his physical disadvantages.

And both men agreed the Mexican superstar paid the price for cherry-picking his opponent.

Jones Jr told ProBox TV's YouTube channel: "Well this is what I'm going to say.

"Nobody looked at it this way yet but most of the time when you move up you just want to move up to get a belt in that weight class to say you did it and you move on.

"Either you stay there or you go back to where you came from.

Canelo Alvarez suffered a second career defeat in his loss to Dmitry Bivol

"You already did that, you did that when you beat Kovalev, what're you going back to do it again for?

"That's great, you want to be a two-time light heavyweight champion, but what does that prove?

"Why would you waste time messing with Bivol who was a problem already? Why would you do that?

"If you did that, that means that you thought he would be easier than David Benavidez, or he might have been easier than Jermall Charlo.

"You're the money man, you could have given us something to see with fighting Demetrius Andrade.

WATCH: Roy Jones Jr and Paulie Malignaggi explain what went wrong for Canelo Alvarez against Dmitry Bivol

Check out the video below...

"Why are you going to challenge another light heavyweight when you already accomplished that one time because you caught the right one, you did it, get out and leave that alone.

"If you're going back down don't stay there, don't keep going back and forth, because you're going to confuse yourself."

Malignaggi, 41, asked: "Roy are you insinuating this was a cherry pick gone wrong?"

PLAY WITH FIRE YOU'RE GOING TO GET BURNED

Jones, 53, replied: "It was, it had to be!

"We all knew. We know the quality of Bivol. We had seen Bivol.

"This ain't no guy who's been there and done it, this is a guy who's on his way to making a mark for himself right now.

"He's got a chip on his shoulder. He wants to prove he's the best light heavyweight right now. He ain't at the end of his career like Kovalev.

"He's in the prime time. You don't go fight a prime time light heavyweight with the structure that he has, the discipline-minded style of the boxing that he has, he's a problem for everybody.

"Not just him, he's a problem for everybody, and he's bigger than you naturally.

"He's always been in the light heavyweight division, he said he could make 168, but he's always been a light heavyweight.

"Play with fire you're going to get burned."

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