Roy Jones Jr. tells TMZ Sports he doesn't believe Canelo Alvarez's loss to Dmitry Bivol will affect his star power one bit ... saying the guy is "still the biggest ticket in boxing" outside of the heavyweights.
Canelo suffered just his second-ever loss on Saturday night after moving up in weight to fight Bivol ... dropping the contest via a unanimous decision.
Some believe the L could hurt Canelo going forward ... but, when we spoke to Jones Jr. about the result on Monday, he said he doesn't expect it to impact the 31-year-old at all.
Can’t stop thinking about Bivol’s performance, absolute genius of a fighter🧠 Winning nearly every round, he controlled, frustrated and hurt Canelo. When was the last time someone did that to a P4P KING, making them look ordinary? Incredible 👏🏼 #boxing #CaneloBivol pic.twitter.com/whVBLUGQfu
— No Nonsense Boxing (@NNBoxing) May 8, 2022
In fact, Jones Jr. said the 57-2-1 fighter's elite legacy is still in-tact ... and no matter who he fights next, his name will still draw plenty of eyeballs.
"[He's] the biggest ticket in boxing outside of the heavyweight division right now," Jones Jr. said.
Jones Jr.'s advice for Canelo now is simple -- fight Gennady Golovkin for a third time, and then go from there.
"Fight Triple G first because that's one that people will pay big money to see," Jones Jr. said. "It's one that'll generate interest and you could do it as a middleweight."
No word yet on what Canelo's plans are next ... but when we spoke to Bivol on Monday, the boxer sure seemed like he wasn't in any race to give a rematch to Canelo.
Bivol told us his goal by fighting Canelo was to gain notoriety ... and then pursue more belts elsewhere.
Bivol, though, did give Canelo credit ... and praised him still as "the biggest name in boxing."