By Jim Dower: Eleider Alvarez is planning his first title defense of his newly won WBO light heavyweight title that he captured last Saturday night in stopping Sergey Kovalev in the 7th round. Alvarez (24-0, 12 KOs) is waiting to see if Kovalev exercises his rematch clause in his contract that he had for last Saturday’s fight.
If Kovalev chooses not to force the rematch, then Alvarez is interested in facing WBC champion Adonis Stevenson or WBA champ Dmitry Bivol in a unification fight.
Alvarez looked incredible in knocking Kovalev down three times en route to stopping him in the 7th round. The 35-year-old Kovalev held his own for the first six rounds, but in the 7th, his poor stamina reared its ugly head causing him to run out of gas.
Stevenson would be a long shot for a fight against Alvarez, as he twice veered around him in the past by giving him a step aside fee. Stevenson obviously wasn’t interested in facing Alvarez in the past, and that’s unlikely to change now that he’s beaten Kovalev. It’s a long shot for Alvarez to get a fight against Stevenson. The 40-year-old Stevenson has a mandatory defense he needs to get out of the way against Oleksandr Gvozdyk. If Stevenson doesn’t face Gvozdyk next, then it’ll surely be a rematch against Badou Jack, a fighter that he fought to a 12 round draw against earlier this year. Alvarez doesn’t bring the same kind of interest from the casual boxing fans for Stevenson compared a rematch with Badou Jack.
”In Sergey Kovalev’s contract, there is a rematch clause for revenge,” Alvarez said to TVAsports.ca. ”We are waiting a month to find out what will happen. I will talk to my manager and team. We will also talk a bit about Bivol and the possibility of a unification. Adonis Stevenson, I do not know, but it could be an option too.”
Alvarez will be resting up until December before he returns to the ring for either a title defense or preferably a unification fight against one of the other world champions at 175. Kovalev has 30 days to decide whether he wants to enforce his rematch clause in his contract with Alvarez.
With his knockout victory last Saturday, Alvarez spoiled Kovalev and HBO’s hopes for an exciting unification fight against Bivol went out the window. There will be some interest from boxing fans in watching a Kovalev vs. Alvarez rematch, but it’s not nearly as interesting as the Kovalev-Bivol fight would have been if they were both world champions. It’ll be fun to see Alvarez and Kovalev face each other again. Alvarez can retire Kovalev with another knockout win.