It seemed that most watchers had Kovalev ahead either slightly or significantly entering the eleventh round and Canelo seemed to need at least a knockdown to have a chance on most cards (I had Kovalev ahead 97-93).
However, after the fight, what most expected to happen in Las Canelos was, in fact, happening as after ten rounds, two judges had Alvarez leading by two points and the other had the fight even.
Essentially, even if Kovalev had been able to continue, the fight was lost on the cards as soon as he hit the floor.
Now, on my card, I had two very close rounds that could have gone Canelo's way (the third and the eighth) and if you gave both to Canelo, I can see the even scorecard, but the narrative that is so common continues- If you want to beat Canelo Alvarez in Nevada, you better take him out.
The fight was pretty dull actually with few exchanges and controlled by Kovalev's jab, so even though Canelo came from behind ( on most scorecards anyway), there won't be a hue and cry for a rematch,
Sergey Kovalev followed a gameplan and consistently used his jab to effectively nullify the aggressiveness of Alvarez, but he never turned up the heat and tried to use his physical advantages to land his own big right hand and by the end, Alvarez had no fear of getting hit by anything other than the jab.
I'll give Canelo Alvarez credit for leaping to light heavyweight and facing Kovalev, even if it's a Kovalev that is past his peak, but it's pretty clear that should he elect to continue at 175 pounds, he would have a very difficult time with WBC/IBF champion Artur Beterbiev and even though he matches better physically with the smaller WBA champion Dmitry Bivol, Bivol could take the Kovalev template and perhaps keep Alvarez on the outside all night and win a decision- if that fight is not in Nevada that is.
The fight that makes the most sense (since Canelo has no interest in fighting Gennady Golovkin again) would be against WBA super-middleweight champion, Callum Smith.
Smith is with DAZN, holds the real title that Alvarez holds the secondary title below, Smith is regarded as the top super middleweight and you have the storyline built-in with Canelo's knockout win over Smith's brother Liam a few years back.
As for Sergey Kovalev, I'd like for this to be the end after his third knockout loss in his last seven fights, but I'd bet that Kovalev fights on and there will always be money in an Artur Beterbiev fight, although it'll never be what it could have been before Beterbiev's promotional issues and Kovalev's loss to Andre Ward.
The knockout victory gave Alvarez the WBO light heavyweight title and even before the fight, Golden Boy and DAZN were attempting to make the argument that Alvarez now equals Henry Armstrong's achievement of holding three titles at the same time.
The ridiculous attempt to place Alvarez's titles (WBA middleweight, the secondary WBA title at super middleweight that Alvarez won from Rocky Fielding and has sat on for a year and now the WBO light heavyweight) pales in comparison to Armstrong holding the feather, light, and welterweight titles at the same time as in Armstrong's era, only one champion existed and in only eight weight classes.
The co-feature on the card that never seemed to end saw Ryan Garcia notch a first-round knockout over Romero Duno in a grudge lightweight match.
Garcia was accused of ducking Duno in September and demanded Duno as his opponent in the first fight under his new contract.
The reason that I didn't add the adjective "impressive" to Garcia's win was that when you watch the replay, it doesn't really appear that Garcia landed any particular strong punch and Duno stopped fighting faster than a pack of dollar store batteries.
Putting the effort of Duno aside, Garcia's win should move him up in some of the sanctioning bodies and I suppose he'll make another jump in competition soon, but I think Garcia might be better suited to have a few more fights before facing his first world-class opponent.
Garcia was talking about the newly dubbed WBC champion Devin Haney and even though Haney hasn't fought anyone of top-level either, his opponents have been better than Garcia's and Haney appears to be a higher grade of boxer than Garcia as well.
On ESPN during the LONG wait for the final two DAZN fights, Miguel Berchelt looked tremendous in stopping Jason Sosa when Sosa's corner conceded the victory in the fourth round.
Berchelt knocked Sosa down in the second and Sosa barely survived that round before Berchelt knocked Sosa down again in the fourth and battered Sosa badly before the Sosa corner threw in the towel.
Sosa was once a minor beltholder and upset Javier Fortuna along with a losing challenge to Vasyl Lomachenko, but Berchelt's right hands are whip-like and almost like a baseball pitcher that throws sidearm and Sosa simply could not avoid them.
Berchelt won't look much better than he did in this one and I'm not sure what else he could have on tap for his future.
IBF champion Tevin Farmer is with Matchroom/DAZN doesn't make fun fights and judging by his demands for fight with Gervonta Davis, Farmer may ask for far more than the fight is worth, the WBA title was recently vacated by Davis and even though WBO champion Jamel Herring is with Top Rank, Herring will be an underdog against talented and undefeated Lamont Roach, who is with Golden Boy/DAZN.
Vasyl Lomachenko has been rumored for Berchelt for a while now and the fight never seems close to being put together.
I know Lomachenko wants the winner of the IBF lightweight title fight between Richard Commey and Teofimo Lopez next to unify all the titles, but since the WBC ruined that with their ridiculous "Franchise" champion, Berchelt vs the Commey-Lopez winner would be a great fight and the winner moving onto Lomachenko would have that much more credibility.
I haven't watched the PBC card yet, so I'll have a small post in a day or so on those results and some other thoughts on the WBC and their "franchise champion", DAZN's waiting until after 1 AM on the East Coast to start Kovalev-Canelo and why Canelo Alvarez has fewer fights that you think because of how his refusal to fight certain opponents is leaving him with few options.
In the boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica outscored me five to two on this part of the boxing weekend.
Ramon added two points each from Ryan Garcia and Miguel Berchelt, while I settled for the two points from Berchelt.
The challenge still stands in my favor 263-230.
No comments:
Post a Comment