Undefeated Upstart Stuns Boxing World Champion, Captures First Belt
Saturday night was supposed to be the continuation of Sergey Kovalev’s comeback on the heels of two straight wins following back-to-back losses to Andre Ward.
But instead, the WBO Light Heavyweight Title fight is now being called Eleider Alvarez’ breakout performance, after the undefeated Columbian shocked the world by knocking out Kovalev.
Alvarez (24-0) dropped Kovalev (32-3-1) three times in the seventh round to score a TKO and to win the WBO Light Heavyweight Title, his first major championship.
Alvarez showed off his versatility with his three seventh round knockouts. The first was an overhand right to the temple of Kovalev that had him stumbling backwards before falling to the mat.
Alvarez, who uses an orthodox stance, then used his weaker left hand for the second knockout as he used a left hook followed by a right overhand to drop the champ.
The final knockout consisted of a combo with an overhand right followed by a left uppercut.
It is just the third loss of Kovalev’s Hall of Fame career — and the first to anyone other than Andre Ward.
https://twitter.com/HBOboxing/status/1025951962599022593
Alvarez’ seventh round performance seemingly came out of nowhere. Kovalev was ahead on all three judge’s scorecards entering the round.
“Sergey was way ahead, but I think he seems to gas out after six rounds,” Kovalev’s promoter Kathy Duva said. “That was the magic round with Ward (in their first fight). I assume he got tired.”
Most of Kovalev’s victories have come in the early rounds. Alvarez confirmed that Kovalev seemed to fatigue as the fight went on.
“As fight went on, I wanted to show that I could stay strong and do good things,” Alvarez said. “His punches were not as hard as they were in the beginning of the fight.”
Compubox calculated that Alvarez landed 29 percent of his total punches compared to Kovalev’s 27 percent, but the Russian threw 88 more punches, therefore landing more punches despite having the lower percentage.
Final Punch Stats for #KovalevAlvarez: Kovalev had the edge in total punches and was winning on all three cards before Alvarez dropped him in the 7th round en route to the stoppage win #boxing pic.twitter.com/xSIJoSqHQW
— CompuBox (@CompuBox) August 5, 2018
This was just the second knockout for Alvarez in the past three years, and a rematch with Kovalev may be his next fight. However, even though Kovalev has a rematch clause in his contract, Duva was unsure if he would seek it.
With Ward suddenly retiring last year, Kovalev was expected to be the king of the light heavyweight division. But he’s now lost three of his last five fights and faces an uncertain future.
His words after the match sounded like a farewell to the fans, although he could have just been caught up in the moment.
“I feel OK,” Kovalev said after the fight. “Thank you everyone. Thank you very much to all the fans around the world for your support. I love you, and I’m fine.”
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