In an upset that some thought could happen, but that few thought would occur in this fashion- Eleider Alvarez scored three knockdowns on Sergey Kovalev out of nowhere in the seventh round and stripped Kovalev of not only his WBO light heavyweight title but also his fearsome demeanor and possibly even his career.
I thought Kovalev had won every round and seemed to be on his way to a lopsided win over the long-time WBC number one contender that champion Adonis Stevenson had spent almost three years avoiding.
One right hand changed all of that and three knockdowns later, the immediate future of the 175-pound division was gone as a Kovalev-Dmitry Bivol unification bout in December was gone.
There is a rematch clause and Kovalev winning all the rounds gives "Krusher" backers hope for a second battle, but this is a huge shot for the light heavyweight division in the short-term.
Alvarez, this KO aside, is not a big puncher and being promoted by Canada's Yvon Michel, who has managed his man Adonis Stevenson away from challengers for years, makes things even more confusing for his future.
As for Kovalev, he did answer some questions about his heart from the Andre Ward fight, as he rose from each knockdown and tried gallantly to fire back and survive, but he still was knocked out by a contender that had never knocked a top ten contender at 175 ( worn-out former super middleweight champion Lucien Bute doesn't count) out and isn't a draw even in his adopted country.
The co-feature from HBO saw Dmitry Bivol retain his WBA title via a unanimous decision over Issac Chilemba.
I haven't been able to watch this fight yet, so no scoring from my card.
Bivol has made some noise about fighting Alvarez in the same December unification bout planned for Kovalev, but after what has been reported to be a workmanlike, but nothing special effort for Bivol.
PBC wasted another national television platform on Fox with three less than thrilling fights.
In the main event of faded former welterweight champions, Andre Berto won a surprising split decision over Devon Alexander at the renovated (Praise the Lord for that fixup project from the home of Circulatory Socks) Nassau Coliseum on Long Island.
Alexander gave away some rounds late, but scored the fight's only knockdown in round three and won going away on my card 116-111.
Berto now gives us the gift of yet another undeserved PBC title shot in which the net result is a one-sided beatdown and waste of the viewers time.
Alexander has to feel snake bitten as for the second fight in a row (This loss and a draw with Victor Ortiz), the judges took away a deserved decision victory.
Former WBO middleweight champion Peter Quillin dominated super middleweight J'Leon Love and won a clear unanimous decision as the co-feature.
It wasn't a fun fight to watch as Quillin walked Love down, as Love did little other than bounce around the ring and generated little offense.
Quillin might be an interesting name to see as an opponent for WBC champ David Benavidez or IBF kingpin Jose Uzcategui on a future PBC card, especially Uzcategui, who may be looking for an opponent with the injury to mandatory Caleb Plant pushing that fight back until late 2018 or early 2019.
I had Quillin winning 99-91.
The first fight saw Sergey Lipinets struggle to a majority decision win in his welterweight bow against trialhorse Erick Bone.
I agreed with one judge at 95-95, but the remaining judges had their cards filled out before the fight with ridiculous cards of 99-91 and 98-92, which were insulting to the effort of Bone.
Lipinets might be better served to stay at junior welter, where he made a strong effort in his loss to Mikey Garcia earlier this year.
In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica gained two points on me in the boxing challenge as he scored five points to my three.
Ramon added two points each from the Quillin and Bivol wins and one from the victory by Lipinets.
I scored one point for each of the above victories.
The challenge now stands at 120-97.
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