Kovalev: Eleider Alvarez is a big test for me

By Boxing News - 08/04/2018 - Comments

Image: Kovalev: Eleider Alvarez is a big test for me

By Jeff Aranow: Sergey Kovalev will be facing his first real test in over a year when he defends his WBO light heavyweight title tonight against unbeaten #8 WBO Eleider Alvarez on HBO at the Hard Rock Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Kovalev needs an emphatic victory tonight to make the boxing public forget about his two losses to Andre Ward.

Eleider Alvarez isn’t in the same league as Ward obviously, but he’s good enough to beat Kovalev if he fights smart and sticks to his trainer’s game plan. As Ward showed, there are ways to neutralize Kovalev’s punching power and tire him out. It’ll be game over for Kovalev if Alvarez can do what Ward did against him. A win for Alvarez will upset Kovalev’s dreams of unifying the 175 pound division, forcing him to have to look for a rematch instead of moving forward with his career.

Tonight’s Kovalev vs. Alvarez televised card starts at 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT on HBO World Championship Boxing.

In Kovalev’s two recent victories over Igor Mikhalkin and Vyacheslav Shabranskyy, the fans weren’t wowed by his wins due to the low quality of his opposition. Those two were pretty much similar to the lesser fighters that Kovalev has mostly fought during his career. To date, Kovalev’s best victories of his career have come against older guys like then 49-year-old Bernard Hopkins, Nathan Cleverly, Jean Pascal and Isaac Chilemba. Of that bunch, Pascal was perhaps the best at the time that Kovalev fought him.

Hopkins was clearly badly over-the-hill when he fought Kovalev in 2014. We saw how badly past it Hopkins was when he was stopped in the 8th round in his last fight against Joe Smith Jr. Kovalev is a good fighter, but he’s not the guy that many boxing fans thought he was during his best years before Andre Ward exposed him. Kovalev’s resume was built on the backs of decent quality opposition but not talented guys. When Kovalev did face a good fighter in Ward, he lost twice to him.

“This is a big test for me,” Kovalev said via RingTV.com. “[Alvarez] is very motivated. He’s hungry. He’s undefeated. It’s not an easy fight and I must be ready for what he will bring. I will say that he’s dangerous. I cannot say whether I can knock him out or get a victory by points. It’s a good fight for the boxing fans,” Kovalev said.

Alvarez is dangerous for Kovalev because he now has the blueprint from Ward to follow to defeat him. Ward showed how to defeat Kovalev by targeting his midsection for shots, and tying him up on the inside to force him to grapple. Kovalev loses his punching power quickly when he’s forced to grapple. Ward was able to tire Kovalev out quickly in both of his fights by wrestling on the inside. If Alvarez does the same thing, it’s quite possible that he’ll be able to do the same thing to him.

What’s interesting is Kovalev’s last two opponents Shabranskyy and Mikhalkin chose not to use the Ward blueprint against him by throwing body shots and grappling. It’s as if they didn’t even study Kovalev’s two losses to Ward. I guess that’s why Shabranskyy and Mikhalkin are both fringe level contenders rather than top fighters. A smart fighter would have looked at Kovalev’s losses to Ward and used what they learned from those fights by attempting to duplicate what happened. Alvarez is a 2008 Olympian, and that means he’s smart and capable of learning from watching his opponents previous fights.

”I never said that I don’t want to fight this guy because he’s very strong,” Kovalev said. ”I’m ready for everybody. As a champion, as a boxer, I’m ready for anybody.”

If Kovalev beats Alvarez, then the fans are going to want to see him take a step up in class by fighting WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol, who is fighting on his undercard tonight against former world title challenger Isaac Chilemba in the co-feature bout. The fans want to see Kovalev back up his words about being “ready for anybody” by facing Bivol, Adonis Stevenson, Badou Jack, Oleksandry Gvozdyk or Artur Beterbiev. At 35, it’s time Kovalev step it up again because he doesn’t have a lot of years left in his career as a top level fighter.

Kovalev says he wants to capture all four of the world titles at 175. For him to do that, he’s going to need to start stepping it up after the Alvarez fight and focus on facing the world champions instead of guys that he knows he can beat. Alvarez is far from a sure thing for Kovalev, but he’s a guy that he should be able to defeat with a high degree of certainty. Kovalev can’t make his two losses to Ward disappear from his record and from the minds of the boxing world. What Kovalev can do is show that he’s learned from the losses and improved by overcoming his opposition’s attempts to take advantage of his poor inside game, and inability to take body shots. If Kovalev can beat Alvarez tonight, he’ll be on his way to getting back to where he was in the past in 2016.

Kovalev is now trained by Abror Tursunpulatov after dumping his longtime trainer John David Jackson. Kovalev believes he’s improved. Due to his soft opposition in his last two fights, we don’t know if Kovalev is an improved fighter now that he’s trained by Tursunpulatov. To know if Kovalev has gotten better, he needs to be facing good opposition on a consistent basis. Right now the best fighters at 175 are these guys:

– Adonis Stevenson

– Badou Jack

– Oleksandr Gvozdyk

– Marcus Browne

– Artur Beterbiev

– Eleider Alvarez

– Anthony Yarde

– Joe Smith Jr.

– Juergen Braehmer

For some reason, Kovalev hasn’t fought any of those guys during his career. He’s going to need to if he wants to win all four titles at 175 before he retires. Kovalev has the punching power to KO Alvarez tonight if he can land his shots. The question is will Kovalev be able to put hands on Alvarez. For Alvarez to win, all he needs to do is tie Kovalev up each round and make him have to break free from his clinches in order to land his shots.

“It’s not the biggest fight in my life, but it’s big for me because it’s the next chapter in my boxing career,” Kovalev said. ”Next time, it will be a harder opponent. He’s undefeated, he’s motivated, and he’s hungry. I should be ready for whatever he can bring. I’m building right now in my mind, my head, and my personal championship in my division. In this division, it’s tough.”

If Kovalev can get past Eleider tonight, his next opponent he could be facing is WBA belt holder Dmitry Bivol for later this year. Bivol has already said that he wants to fight Kovalev. Assuming the feelings are mutual from ‘The Krusher,’ we could be seeing a unification fight later this year between Bivol and Kovalev. In that case, Kovalev is going to need to show a lot more against Bivol than he’ll be showing tonight of his talent against Alvarez. Bivol has a lot of punching power and technical skills going for him. He’s also a lot younger than Kovalev at 27. If Kovalev can get past Bivol, he’ll have gone a long ways towards showing that he has the talent to unify the light heavyweight division. The only thing that could stop Kovalev from getting a shot at unifying the 175 pound weight class are the promoters for Beterbiev and Adonis Stevenson. Kovalev shouldn’t look past Alvarez tonight because this is a fight that he could lose if he’s forced to deal with another good game plan. Kovalev’s stamina is so bad that he could lose if Alvarez targets his midsection, ties him up and is able to take him to the second half of the fight.