By Aragon Garcia: WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (34-3-1, 29 KOs) and Saul Canelo Alvarez (52-1-2, 35 KOs) are finalizing their fight for November 2 on DAZN in Las Vegas, Nevada. Their management have been in negotiations a while now working on putting together the fight. There is expected to be an announcement this coming week about the Canelo-Kovalev fight, according to @MikeCoppinger.
The venue for the fight still hasn’t been named as of yet. Canelo has been mostly fighting at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. It doesn’t matter which venue it is in Las Vegas. The boxing public don’t care where the fight is in Vegas. Canelo’s personal choice of late has been the T-Mobile, but it doesn’t matter to fans. They just want to see Canelo challenge Kovalev, 36, for his WBO title.
Saul Alvarez fighting for 4th division world title
Canelo, 29, will will be going after his fourth division world title in moving up to 175 to take on WBO light heavyweight champion Kovalev for his belt. Recently, Canelo won his third division world title belt in beating WBA ‘regular super middleweight champion Rocky Fielding by a 3rd round knockout last December. Although some boxing fans don’t acknowledge the WBA secondary title as being a true title, it is a valid title, and it counts on Canelo’s resume.
The Golden Boy Promotions star Canelo deserves a lot of respect going up to light heavyweight to challenge Kovalev. Canelo started his career out at 140 in 2005, and moved through the divisions steadily. He’s fought at 147, 154, 160 and 168. Now he’s moving up to 175 to take on one of the best fighters in the division.
Canelo will need to put on a little more muscle before meeting up on November 2, because he won’t want to be manhandled by the bigger Kovalev. Canelo, 5’8″, will be giving away five inches in height and 2 1/2″ inches in reach to the 6’0″ Kovalev. It’s going to be difficult for Canelo to put on the extra muscle while still being able to keep his stamina together. He’s had problems gassing out in the past in his fights.
No word on Rehydration clause
Canelo isn’t expected to use a rehydration clause for his title challenge against Kovalev, because there’s no need for it. In Canelo’s last fight, he had a rehydration limit for his unification match against IBF 160-lb champion Daniel Jacobs on May 4. That was to make sure there was a level playing field, because Jacobs is a huge guy.
Sources tell The Athletic that Canelo Alvarez and Sergey Kovalev are finalizing a deal to meet in a light heavyweight title fight streamed on DAZN after weeks of talks. The fight, which will be announced in the next week, is expected to take place Nov. 2 at Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena
— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) September 7, 2019
Canelo will be the favorite in this fight because of his talent, youth, and body punching. Kovalev’s Achilles heel is his inability to take body shots. That’s going to put him at the mercy of Canelo on November 2.