By Eric Thomas: In a shocking upset, Eleider Alvarez (24-0, 12 KOs) destroyed World Boxing Organization light heavyweight belt holder Sergey ‘Krusher’ Kovalev (32-3, 28 KOs) by a 7th round knockout on Saturday night to claim the WBO title on HBO from the Hard Rock Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Kovalev was knocked down three times in the seventh. For a fighter that was once considered the best light heavyweight in the division, it was a sad way for the ‘Krusher’ Kovalev to lose.
(Photo credit David Spagnolo/Main Events)
Kovalev, 35, was ahead on the scorecards going into round seven. However, he got sloppy and was dropped hard by a perfect one-two combination from the 34-year-old Alvarez. Instead of Kovalev grabbing Alvarez in a clinch after getting back up, he elected to brawl with him. Alvarez made Kovalev pay for his stupidity by knocking him down two more times in the round. The referee David Fields had no other choice but to stop the fight. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:45 of round 7.
Kovalev fought well in the first six rounds, using his jab and powerful right hands. Kovalev looked excellent fighting on the outside against Alvarez. It looked like Alvarez was biding his time waiting to the midpoint of the contest before opening up with his heavy artillery. He seemed to know that Kovalev would gas out by the 7th round like he did in his two fights against Andre ‘SOG’ Ward.
Alvarez didn’t even try to go after Kovalev until the seventh round. But when Alvarez did start unloading on Kovalev, he quickly hurt him and put him on the canvas. After the first knockdown, Kovalev never stood a chance due to his foolish mistake of thinking he could back Alvarez off by slugging with him. Alvarez took full advantage of Kovalev’s decision to slug with him by dropping him a second and third time.
It’s unclear whether Kovalev had a rematch clause in the contract for the fight. One would think that he did have one inserted into the contract. If that’s the case, then he’ll clearly execute it so that he can try ad avenge the loss. Kovalev has little choice but to try and face Alvarez again, as his options are limited right now. With the way Kovalev fought tonight, he would struggle if he fought WBC champion Adonis Stevenson, IBF belt holder Artur Beterbiev or WBA champion Dmitry Bivol. All three of those fighters would likely have beaten Kovalev tonight if they had been inside the ring with him. You can include interim WBC light heavyweight champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk to that list. As far as Kovalev’s rematch prospects go, we don’t know if Alvarez will be able to get in a voluntary defense of his new WBO title before he must face Kovalev a second time. There aren’t many big name contenders in the WBO’s rankings for him to get a good payday fighting. Alvarez might be better off facing Kovalev in an immediate rematch on HBO, as there will be a lot of interest in the fight.
In the co-feature bout, WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol (14-0, 11 KOs) stayed unbeaten in out-boxing a game but limited former world title challenger Isaac Chilemba (25-6-2, 10 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision. The scores were 116-112, 120-108 and 120-108. Boxing News 24 scored it for the 27-year-old Bivol by a 120-108 score.
Chilemba did a good job of making Bivol miss with his shots. However, he was unable to do much against the Russian other than hitting him with jabs and single shots. Bivol seemed like he was just looking to counter all night long, which wasn’t a good look for him. Chilemba made Bivol look bad when he pressed the attack on him in the second half of the contest. Chilemba was focusing too much on his defense and not enough on his offense. That’s Chilemba’s mindset though. He likes to make his opponents look bad, but he still ends up losing for lack off punching power and offense.
Overall, this was not an impressive performance by Bivol. He won the fight, but he didn’t beat Chilemba as well as Oleksandr Gvozdyk did in stopping him in the 8th round in November 2016. That doesn’t necessarily mean that Gvozdyk could beat Bivol, but it’s possible that he might if the two of them were to ever tangle. With Gvozdyk promoted by Top Rank and fighting on ESPN, it’s unlikely Bivol will be fighting him anytime soon. Bivol fights on HBO, and there’s probably not going to be cooperation needed from the two networks for them to agree to a sharing deal for a Bivol vs. Gvozdyk fight for it to have a reasonable chance of taking place. Gvozdyk still needs to defeat WBC champion Adonis Stevenson for it to even be a discussion point of a future Bivol-Gvozdyk fight taking place.
Bivol would do well against Eleider Alvarez if he can get a crack at fighting him. Bivol takes a shot a lot better than Kovalev, and he would have the defense to nullify Alvarez’s attacks in the second half if he were to play possum against him like he did against Kovalev tonight.
