Sergey Kovalev vows to fix mistakes from previous Eleider Alvarez fight

By Boxing News - 02/01/2019 - Comments

Image: Sergey Kovalev vows to fix mistakes from previous Eleider Alvarez fight

By Sean Jones: Former IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey ‘Krusher’ Kovalev (32-3-1, 28 KOs) is vowing to fix the critical mistakes that he made in his previous fight against Eleider ‘Storm’ Alvarez (24-0, 12 KOs) when they face each other this Saturday night on ESPN+ in a rematch at The Ford Center at The Star, Frisco, Texas.

Without elaborating about the mistakes that he made in his game last time he fought Alvarez, the 35-year-old Kovalev insists that he’s turned things around by working on all the flaws in his game that led to his seventh round knockout defeat at the hands of the 33-year-old Eleider last August in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The only real flaw that Kovalev showed was in stamina. There was no glaring technical mistake that the hard hitting Russian KO artist Kovalev made in the fight. He just got tired, and fell part in the 7th round when Alvarez started hitting him with big shots.

If Kovalev hadn’t run out of gas, he very likely would have taken advantage of Alvarez’s aggressiveness and knocked him out in the seventh. Alvarez had been very passive in the first six rounds, being careful not to get hit with anything big from Kovalev. Alvarez still took a lot of punishment in the first six rounds, and it was an accomplishment on his part to make it to the seventh. A lot of fighters wouldn’t have if they had taken the same kinds of shots that Alvarez did.

“I made a mistake last time, but this time I will fix it,” Kovalev said during the news conference this week in talking about his previous fight against the unbeaten Eleider. “This Saturday, I will fix this situation and be on top again.”

Alvarez, 33, will be making his first defense of his WBO 175 lb title against the popular Kovalev on ESPN+ this Saturday night on February 2 at 12 midnight ET / 6:00 p.m. PT.

Kovalev has now faded in four out of his last six fights, and it’s not looking like he’s going to be able to fix his stamina problems no matter what he says. Kovalev got tired in both fights against Andre Ward, and in his fights with Isaac Chilemba and Eleider. After each fight, Kovalev acknowledged that he’s gotten tired, and that he was going to fix the problem, but for some reason he couldn’t do it. That fact that Kovalev is saying that he’s going to fix the problem for his rematch with Alvarez on Saturday, it makes it difficult to believe. With his massive punching power, it’s possible that Kovalev with an early knockout without him needing to worry about his stamina issues. Kovalev’s early knockouts of Jean Pascal, Vyacheslav Shabranskyy, Igor Mikhalkin and Nadjib Mohammedi helped him disguise his stamina problems. Kovalev’s power is still there. That’s not going away anytime soon. What’s not there is his conditioning.

Alvarez is a very beatable fighter, as we saw in the first six rounds against Kovalev last August, and in his fights against Chilemba, Robert Berridge, Isidro Prieto and Jean Pascal. Alvarez is not an exceptional talent. He’s just someone with a good chin, and good but not great punching power. Alvarez would be very beatable if he fought the better fighters at 175 like Dmitry Bivol, Artur Beterbiev and Oleksander Gvozdyk. Those guys would likely clean house on Alvarez. But against a guy with stamina problems like Kovalev, he’s always going to have a chance of waiting him out until he gets tired before shooting for a knockout. Alvarez was losing to Kovalev on all three scorecards going into the seventh round last August. Alvarez’s face looked beaten up, and he did not look like he was going to win the fight. But all it took was several hard shots from Alvarez to the head of a tired Kovalev in the seventh, and the fight was soon over.

“If not, I am not the Sergey ‘Krusher’ Kovalev. Believe me, this Saturday will be the best version of me because I turned everything on to get in the best shape of my boxing career,” Kovalev said.

If Kovalev loses the fight, he’s going to need to make a decision whether should continue with his career or not. A second loss to Alvarez would be a clear sign that it’s time for Kovalev to think about retiring or perhaps moving up or down in weight to another weight class. Styles make fights though, so perhaps Kovalev would have better luck against one of the other champions at 175. However, Kovalev would need to work his way to a title shot against the likes of Beterbiev, Bivol or Gvozdyk. The management for those guys aren’t going to give Kovalev a title shot straightaway if he’s coming off of a second knockout loss to Alvarez. Kovalev wants to win all four titles at light heavyweight, but that’s going to be hard for him to do if he loses to Alvarez on Saturday.

Alvarez is the favorite in the fight, but it’s far from certain that he’s going to win. Kovalev saying that his conditioning will be better in the fight is something that is hard to believe. He’s 35 now, and it’s not likely that his conditioning is going to improve. We don’t know what kind of lifestyle Kovalev has had outside of the ring that has led to him running out of gas in his fights with Ward, Alvarez and Chilemba.

There have been rumors that Kovalev likes to party in between fights, eat what he wants, and balloon up in weight. If there’s any truth to these rumors, then it’s not likely that his stamina will have improved enough for this fight for him not to fade in the second half of the fight. As a boxer, it’s important to life the life in between fights, and not celebrate like someone that’s retired from boxing. Even if Kovalev does gas out late on Saturday, he’ll make the fight fun to watch in the first half before he does gas. Kovalev brings pure drama to his fights. That’s what makes him interesting to watch. You just know that he’s either going to knockout his opponents or he’s run out of gas and get stopped.