INEVITABLY, CANELO MOVES UP TO BECOME A FOUR WEIGHT WORLD CHAMPION
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez moved up to two divisions to stop Russia’s Sergey Kovalev to claim the WBO light heavyweight title, with a thrilling 11th round knockout in Las Vegas for a historic victory. However, as historic and as good a performance and finish it was, personally, I think the better performance was Golden Boy actually securing the fight and giving the illusion to the public that it was going to end anyway other than it did.
Do not get me wrong, I respect and admire Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and under no circumstances would dream about knocking his skills, abilities and boxing brilliance. I mean, how can you knock a guy that started his amateur career at 13, professional career at 15 and someone whose had 56 pro fights, with now 53 wins and only 1 defeat?
But as soon as I heard Kovalev was fighting Canelo, literally announced moments after he knocked out Brit Anthony Yarde in the 11th round of their title match in Russia, a mere 10 weeks ago. I said straight away this was Kovalev’s farewell fight in the big time and he was just securing his future in one last hooray.
First and foremost, although Yarde is a very good fighter and a huge prospect, he is vastly inexperienced at championship level and it showed as Kovalev boxed him well and kept him at range.
However, Yarde almost took Kovalev out and was within one shot of shocking the Russian and stopping him in his home country.
Although at the highest level anything is possible in boxing, especially with the heavier fighters who pack heavy punches, the alarm bells were already ringing for me. Remember, when Kovelev was the formidable Krusher, he was beaten twice, albeit two close affairs, by the intelligence and slick boxing of former p4p no1 Andre Ward. So that mystic had already gone.
Credited he had fought back well from then to claim his WBO world title back, back he lost that two fights later when he was knocked out by Eleider Alvarez in the 7th round. Again, credited, six months later he won that title back from Alvarez in a unanimous points decision but if you are a proper boxing head you could see the Krusher was no more.
The point is Kovalev’s chances of winning fights was to now outbox and outlast fighters. He still has power but obviously not like he had before, he is not a better boxer than Canelo and moving up gives the Mexican the advantage on stamina and being outlasted.
Added to that, rumours were Kovalev had been struggling at the weight and maybe this is the reason why he agreed to the fight a mere 10 weeks after the Yarde fight, which is generally unheard of.
That rumour proved to be somewhat true, as after Canelo weighed in at a very comfortable 12st 6lbs 8oz. Kovalev came in 4oz over at 12st 7lbs 4oz, and that was after a second attempt at weighing in, when he stripped naked. He then needed an hour to get those 4oz off and an hour later, he successfully weighed in under the limit.
There were also rumours that Golden Boy had a rehydration clause on the morning of the fight that Kovalev had to adhere to. All these were there for Canelo’s favour as the A side, it’s shrewd business moves from Golden Boy who all credit to them their job is to make the best decisions for their fighter as the A side.
It’s funny that in the build up, Golden Boy did a great job of hyping the fight, talking how Canelo is moving up two weight classes to fight a big, strong, devastating punching Russian, who is coming to destroy him. That would have been very accurate about 5 or 4 years ago, but the truth was although Kovalev was still a good fighter, he was a shadow of his former self and at the tail end of his career.
Nevertheless, the fight obviously had that big event feel about it with all the stars coming out to watch the spectacle. The fight started very cagey, with both fighters jockeying for position, it was a cautious, battle of the jabs in the first few rounds with no fighter really getting the upper hand or making any real dents although Kovalev did the better.
In the first half of the fight I definitely think there was a deliberate strategy from Canelo to stand his ground but not throw much. I believe with Kovelev’s weight issues and being the older fighter, plus maybe an eye on his last loss as well as the Yarde fight, they thought to wear Kovelev down and Canelo can come on strong in the second half of the fight.
Kovalev took the early rounds without doing much damage. As the fight went on, Canelo gradually came back into it throwing a bit more. He began to get closer to Kovalev and control the pace. Although Kovalev was still throwing punches, doing slightly the better, and nicking a few rounds, you could physically see the fight was taking more out of him then Canelo and by the ninth, you was expecting an onslaught from Canelo.
In a fight that didn’t really catch fire, it heated up in the ninth with Kovalev catching Canelo with some good shots, although Canelo was coming back, Kovalev took that round. Canelo then came out in the 10th and ominously stepped up the pace, firing shots to back up Kovalev to take the round. Going into the 11th I had it 6 rounds to 4 for Kovalev.
However, Canelo made the judges irrelevant as midway through the 11th he connected with a clubbing right hand, then a superb left, right combo to send Kovalev crashing to his knees, forcing the ref to stop the fight for a devastating finish to make history.
Canelo certainly made the fight harder than it should have been but credit to Kovalev who really made it a fight and made Canelo really battle and work for the victory.
However, when you look at it closely, Kovalev was trying win the fight on points, Canelo only really pushed the fight for two rounds and stopped him, that’s the cold hard truth of it. I was very surprised when they revealed the scorecards and it showed Canelo was up on all three judges scorecards. Then again when I think about it, why would I be surprised? It seems the judges in Vegas really like Canelo and would never score a fight against him.
That said, you cannot take away Canelo’s brilliance and his will to win. Fair enough Kovalev is coming to the end of his career but was the bigger guy and was doing very well throughout the fight. Although I was expecting it to happen, Canelo really had to pull it out the bag to make history, and that he did to devastating effect.
Canelo has fought a whose, who in boxing, after the fight he was asked about triple G an alluded to being open to a third fight. Although there is not much else for him to prove and he is undoubtedly the p4p no1, the fights with Golovkin still leaves a bad taste in my mouth and a third fight has to happen. I personally thought he got a defeat and a draw in those two fights, but has come away with a draw and a win.
Nevertheless, until we receive information of his next fight. Canelo can bask in what I thought was a great, yet inevitable come from behind victory to make history. No matter what I think of him, Golden Boy, Vegas judges, or Kovalev as an opponent, there is no doubting that he is a bonafide Mexican superstar and a legit boxing legend and future hall of famer. All hail King Canelo.
