Russell Mora Is Referee For Canelo Alvarez-Dimitry Bivol

The WBA has tabbed Nevada veteran Russell Mora to be the third man in the ring for Saturday night’s world light heavyweight title bout in Las Vegas between Canelo Alvarez and Dimitry Bivol. And, he’s a referee with a ton of experience, including in Canelo’s previous world title bout.

First, Mora stopped Canelo’s win over Caleb Plant last November in the 11th round as Canelo overwhelmed him with a barrage of blows, and which gave the future hall of famer the undisputed super middleweight crown.

As we have previously written, Mora’s title experience extends beyond just his Canelo bouts. The 62 year old, New Mexico native Mora stopped the Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder WBC heavyweight title fight after the Alabama challenger was decked face first in the 11th round on October 9th.

Mora previously was also the third man in the ring for the Yordenis Ugas decision upset win over Manny Pacquiao for the WBA World Welterweight Title in Vegas last August. He also worked Teofimo Lopez’s unanimous decision win over Vasiliy Lomachenko for the Undisputed Lightweight Title in October of 2020.

Mora has only worked one previous Canelo fight before the Plant bout, and that was his 11th round stoppage of Sergey Kovalev in November of 2019 for the WBO Light Heavyweight Championship. Mora moved in to wave the fight off after Canelo landed a booming right hand dropping the Russian.

Should the bout go the distance, three veteran judges will score the bout. They are Tim Cheatham and Dave Moretti of Nevada and Steve Weisfeld of New Jersey, all of whom have worked Alvarez title bouts before.

Moretti is the most experienced having worked 11 previous Canelo bouts, including the Plant bout. Weisfeld was also one of the other judges in that one. Plus, he and Moretti were both judges in Canelo’s controversial decision win in his rematch with Gennady Golovkin in September of 2018. That scored the fight identical 115-113 for Canelo that night.

Cheatham has only scored one previous Canelo bout and that was his stoppage of Billy Joe Saunders in Arlington, TX, last May.