By Sean Jones: WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez thinks Saul Canelo Alvarez could have a lot of problems against WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev this Saturday night. Benavidez doesn’t view this fight as a mismatch like a lot of boxing fans are doing. The size, power and the jab of Kovalev (34-3-1, 29 KOs) could give the short 5’8″ Canelo fits in this contest.
Canelo (52-1-2, 35 KOs) meets WBO light heavyweight champion Kovalev this Saturday, November 2 at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight will be shown LIVE on DAZN.
Benavidez wonders what will happen with Canelo if he’s unable to knockout Kovalev in the first half of the fight. If Canelo gasses out in the second half of the contest, what happens to him? Benavidez feels that Kovalev will keep coming forward with his great offense, and Canelo may not be able to handle that. Canelo’s head movement may not be as good in the later rounds, and that’s when Kovalev could start landing a lot of heavy shots on him.
Gennadiy Golovkin and Daniel Jacobs both had a lot of success against Canelo in the second half of their fights. They don’t hit as hard as Kovalev does though, and they weren’t able to get Canelo out of there to keep the judges from scoring it.
Kovalev can give Canelo problems with his jab says Benavidez
“I feel like Kovalev has amazing power, and he has a lot of experience too,” WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez said to Fighthub in analyzing the Canelo vs. Kovalev fight. “He’s got an extremely strong jab. If he uses his jab right, he can give Canelo a lot of problems, and can actually hurt him. This dude has knocked people out with jabs. He’s literally knocked people out with jabs.
“I feel like the only thing that’s keeping him from doing amazing in that fight is his training camp. Canelo always has amazing training camps, and looks good. But in Kovalev’s last fight, it’s been a little iffy. But I feel this is the fight he needed to be motivated as he needs to be, because a lot of people are counting him out. I’m pretty sure a lot of people are counting him out. Whoever beats Canelo makes history.
Benavidez is quite astute in bringing up the possibility of Kovalev, 36, using his jab to control the fight from range. A lot of boxing fans are assuming that Canelo will be able to use his head movement to avoid Kovalev’s jabs, and to get inside to bang him to the body.
Kovalev moves better than what people think, and he could jab and move all night. Although Kovalev’s last opponent Anthony Yarde was able to close the distance to land shots on him in rounds 7 and 8, but he was the same height as him at 6’0″. Canelo is only 5’8″, and it’s going to be tougher for him to get in range to land his shots against Sergey.
Benavidez: What it Canelo can’t stop Kovalev’s offense in the later rounds?
“They both have a lot on the line. Canelo has to get ready for a lot of stuff,” said Benavidez. “He has amazing head movement, but what’s going to happen in the later rounds if he can’t stop Kovalev? Everybody talks about Canelo’s body shots and head movement, but what if he can’t stop none of Kovalev’s offense in the later rounds when you’re tired. All that weight.
“When you spar a heavier guy, all that weight puts a toll on you, and you get tired. There’s no weight clause, and there’s no catch-weight. Kovalev can go up as much as he wants. He’s going to be rehydrated, and he’s never had problems making weight,” said Benavidez.
If Kovalev is still there in the second half of the fight, Canelo could be in for a real tough time if he gasses out. Canelo is good at surviving against fighters that throw single power shots. Alvarez might fall apart if Kovalev unloads on him with three and four-punch combinations. That’s Kovalev’s specialty.
He’s always been good at throwing multiple punch combinations, and he’s still good at that. Against Anthony Yarde, Kovalev was still throwing combinations late in the fight. That’s what wore Yarde out. He took a lot of punches in rounds 9 and 10, and couldn’t handle it. If Canelo can’t stop Kovalev’s offense in the second half, he’s going to get beaten up and likely knocked out.
Canelo and Kovalev can do a variety of stuff
“The closest thing we can compare this fight to is Andre Ward and Kovalev, but only because of how technical Andre Ward was,” said Benavidez. “I feel like Canelo, in my opinion, is a little bit better than Andre Ward. I feel like he has more weapons. There’s a variety of stuff Canelo can do, but there’s a variety of stuff Kovalev can do,” said Benavidez.
There’s no way that Canelo can stay on the outside and beat Kovalev. Of course, you can’t rule crazy scoring like in the first Canelo vs. Golovkin fight. In that match, Canelo was jabbed all night long from the outside by Golovkin. In each round, Canelo would land one or two hard shots. Golovkin still landed far more, but the judge s were impressed with Canelo’s one or two hard punches, and they chose to ignore all the jabs from GGG that he was eating.
If history repeats itself, then Kovalev’s jabs will be ignored by the judges, and they’ll focus on scoring rounds based on just the power shots. It would be wise for Kovalev to make sure that he lands as many heavy shots as possible in each round, because he’s fighting the ‘Face of Boxing’ in Canelo. If Kovalev merely does enough to win, he could find himself getting a draw like Golovkin.
Benavidez hopes to fight Canelo
“Maybe I can get the big fight against Canelo,” said Benavidez. “I hope so.”
Canelo hasn’t shown any interest in fighting the 6’2″ Benavidez thus far, and it’s not likely that he’ll choose to face him in the future. Benavidez is 22, so he’s not someone that will get old. Canelo has fought a lot of guys after they got old, and weren’t the same fighters they once were. We saw that in Canelo’s fights against the following fighters:
- Shane Mosley
- Gennadiy Golovkin
- Kermit Cintron
- Miguel Cotto
- Erislandy Lara
Canelo’s trainer Reynoso says Kovalev fight made sense
“We as a team are always watching the weight classes around us, and we thought that this was a fight that will make sense,” said Canelo’s trainer Eddy Reynoso to Fightnews.com. “And we want to make history, and Kovalev has already made a name for himself in boxing. He has a legacy, and he has faced great fighters in his division. We know that we have a great chance of beating a great champion like Kovalev, and so we decided to make the fight happen,” said Reynoso.
It’s interesting that Canelo’s trainer Reynoso admits that they scout out their guys. They chose to take a calculated risk against Kovalev rather than fight the dangerous Artur Beterbiev at 175. Was that because of Reynoso and Canelo’s careful scouting ?
