Las Vegas, November 2nd, 2019- Not every event can be the biggest of all time. It was clear early this week that excitement and consumer money spent during fight week festivities would not meet or exceed expectations. Despite Canelo Alvarez’s 52-1-2 35KOs first attempt at a fourth title in a fourth division against Krusher Sergey Kovalev 34-3-1 29KOs. Kovalev was coming off a KO victory and just three years removed from being a top five pound for pound fighter.
All that sentiment was erased with a left and right hook near the end of the eleventh round in front of 14,490 screaming Mexican fans at the MGM Grand Garden Arena as Saul Canelo Alvarez cemented his legacy in boxing history becoming a four-division champion.
Sergey Kovalev didn’t come to lose. The game plan was to box off of the jab, and it was effective; with media split on which fighter they had winning at the fights end. Patiently, Canelo bided his time and ate a lot of Kovalev jabs as he inched his way inside over the course of the fight.
Into the ninth round Canelo was landing big hooks more frequently making it painfully obvious Kovalev’s punches didn’t have enough steam on them. In the eleventh round Canelo landed a left hook that wobbled Kovalev and followed with a big right hook that crumpled the once feared Russian fighter.
After the victory Canelo said “I’m very thankful. This is just a step in my career, in my history, and all I ask of you, is to be patient because Canelo will make history. That’s a guarantee.”
“The plan overall was patience, that was basically it – to have patience. We knew it was going to be five, six rounds and it was going to take some time for me to get him. But honestly he’s a great fighter. I’m new at this weight, new in this division. Much credit to him, he’s a great fighter, but we stuck to our game plan. It was delayed a little bit but overall it was successful.” Canelo said.
Kovalev said “I was tired after round 6, because I had my last fight very close to this one, but it’s okay, it’s a new experience for me. Canelo is really a great champion. A little bit right now, I didn’t recover from my last fight. But it’s okay. Thanks for the fight Canelo, I have big respect for him. He made history.”
