By Allan Fox: WBO light heavyweight world champion Sergey Kovalev and WBA champion Dmitry Bivol made weight for their respective title defenses on Saturday night against Eleider ‘Storm’ Alvarez and Isaac Chilemba on HBO World Championship Boxing at the Hard Rock Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Kovalev (32-2-1m 28 KOs) weighed in at 174 pounds. His opponent 34-year-old Alvarez (23-0, 11 KOs) weighed in at 174.4 pounds.
Bivol is the best thing about this card. He’s clearly the best fighter on the card. That’s not a knock on the 35-year-old Kovalev, because he’s still a good fighter. Bivol is on another level entirely right now. The two of them could face each other soon if they keep fighting. Bivol is interested in facing Bivo later this year. Whether Main Events lets Bivol get a chance to fight Kovalev remains to be seen.
This is not a good card for HBO unfortunately. It would have been a lot more interesting if Kovalev were defending his WBO title against Marcus Browne, and Bivol facing Badou Jack of Anthony Yarde. Those contenders would have at least be a competitive fight on paper.
Bivol (13-0, 11 KOs) weighed in at 174.6 pounds. His opponent #12 WBA Chilemba (25-5-2, 10 KOs) weighed in at 175 pounds. Chilemba is a struggling fighter at this point in his career, as he’s lost 3 out of his last 4 fights. Chilemba has got to be one of the most undeserving contenders to be given a world title shot in memory. It’s not common for a fighter to post a record of 1-3 in his last 4 fights and still be given a world title shot. It’s unclear why Bivol’s management chose to match him against a struggling fighter like Chilemba, as it’s not really fair to the other contenders in the World Boxing Association’s top 15 for a guy with that kind of record to be given a title shot. It almost looks like Chilemba is being rewarded for failure, because that’s the only thing he’s been consistent at recently. Main Events seem to be dropping the ball in matching Kovalev against Alvarez and Bivol against Chilemba.
Kovalev, 35, is still trying to come to terms with his two losses to Andre ‘SOG” Ward. Those defeats seemed to do a lot of damage to Kovalev, who has been full of excuses trying to explain away the defeats. It would have been better for Kovalev to admit that he was beaten by the smarter fighter Ward, but he hasn’t done that. Kovalev has blamed the judges for his first loss, and he thinks that he was given a raw deal in the second loss after Ward hit him with body shots that were on the borderline. Kovalev thinks he was hit low. The replay shows otherwise.
“I cleaned up my mind and body,” Kovalev said.
Kovalev has come back from the losses to Ward by beating Igor Mikhalkin and Vyacheslav Shabranskyy. Those are not high quality fighters, so it’s difficult to say whether ‘Krusher’ Kovalev has improved or not since his losses to Kovalev. As flawed as Kovalev was in those two defeats, he would have beaten Mikhalkin and Shabranskyy without any improvements. Those guys are soft opponents. The fighters that are high quality guys at 175, Kovalev’s promoters at Main Events haven’t matched him against, and you can understand why. It’s better to keep the revenue stream going by matching Kovalev against beatable guys than it would be to put him in with a good contender like Marcus Browne that might defeat him and send him back to the low paying contender ranks.
“It’s a big test for me. He is very motivated. He’s hungry for this fight and for a victory. He’s undefeated. It’s not an easy fight, and I must be ready for what he will bring,” Kovalev said about his opponent for Saturday night Eleider Alvarez. ”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.I never said that I don’t want to fight this guy because he’s very strong. I’m ready for everybody. As a champion, as a boxer, I’m ready for anybody.”
During Kovalev’s best years, he defeated Bernard Hopkins, Nathan Cleverly and Jean Pascal. Those fights took place when Kovalev was one of the most feared fighters in the 175 pound division. Nowadays, Kovalev is no longer feared. The top contenders at light heavyweight wish to face Kovalev, but thus far, they’ve not been given a shot at him since his two losses to Ward.
After nine years as a pro, Alvarez is finally getting his first world title shot. Eleider would have already fought for a world title years ago if he had taken the title shot against WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis ‘Superman’ Stevenson. Alvarez reportedly took a step aside payment twice by Stevenson in order to let him take soft opponents. In hindsight, Alvarez should have insisted that he be given a world title shot, because he’s now 34 and fighting for a world title for the first time. Had Alvarez taken the fight with Stevenson and beaten him, he would have been given big paydays in a rematch with him and he would have been able to fight the other champions.
In the co-feature bout, Bivol is taking a big step down in class in facing Chilemba after beating Sullivan Barrera by a 12th round knockout on March 3. Bivol could be the best fighter in the light heavyweight division today. He’d like to prove that to the boxing fans, but it’s unlikely he’ll get a chance to do that. Bivol will soon find out that promoters protect their best fighters at light heavyweight, and they do that by not matching them against the best. For Bivol to face he best, it’s likely going to take many years, and there are some guys like Adonis Stevenson that he’ll never get a shot at.
Chilemba is not in the same class as Barrera, although some casual boxing fans believe him to be. Chilemba’s three defeats in his last four fights is a clear sign that he’s not a major player. Never the less, Chilemba is still one of the better fighters on Bivol’s four-year resume, but only because he’s still young and green and hasn’t fought a lot of the top guys. Chilemba was a good fighter four years ago, but he’s aging now and staring to slip as a fighter. Bivol has recent wins over these fighters:
– Sullivan Barrera
– Trent Broadhurst
– Cedric Agnew
– Samuel Clarkson
– Robert Berridge
– Yevgenii Makhteienko
– Felix Valera