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LAS VEGAS – Sergey Kovalev gave Canelo Alvarez enough difficulty during their light heavyweight title fight that one of the judges had it even entering the 11th round.
Alvarez led by the same score, 96-94, on the other two cards when he knocked Kovalev cold with a right hand early in the final minute of the 11th round. Kovalev’s consistent jab was tough for Alvarez to penetrate, but he took the strong Russian’s power well during his 175-pound debut in November 2019 at MGM Grand Garden Arena.
The 31-year-old Alvarez anticipates a more troublesome bout in his return to the 175-pound division Saturday night. The four-division champion considers Dmitry Bivol a more complete boxer than Kovalev, who, at 36, was seven years older than Alvarez when they fought.
Alvarez (57-1-2, 39 KOs) and Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs) are the same age. And while Bivol has only appeared badly hurt once – at the end of the 10th round of his otherwise easy victory over Joe Smith Jr. in March 2019 – Kovalev had been knocked out twice, by Andre Ward and Eleider Alvarez, when Alvarez viciously became the third opponent to do it.
“The fighter, that’s the difference,” Alvarez told a group of reporters Wednesday at MGM Grand when asked to assess the differences between Bivol and Kovalev. “[Bivol] brings more challenge for me. With Kovalev, I feel different. I feel him heavy, stronger. But with Dmitry Bivol, it’s gonna be more difficult because he’s strong, young and he’s a really good fighter.”
Russia’s Bivol is a fresher fighter than Kovalev (34-4-1, 29 KOs), who barely took any time off between his 11th-round stoppage of England’s Anthony Yarde in August 2019 and his loss to Alvarez 10 weeks later. Alvarez acknowledged, however, that the taller, heavier Kovalev presented problems for him.
“He was really good,” Alvarez said during a recent conference call. “He was hard to go inside [against]. He worked really good [with] his left hand. He’s hard to go inside [against] and throw my combinations. But like I always say, in my corner we always say, ‘Be patient. At some point, you need to slow down and do your work.’ ”
Kovalev, 39, will fight May 14 for the first time in the 2½ years since Alvarez knocked him out. The former IBF, WBA and WBO light heavyweight champion will make his debut as a full-fledged cruiserweight against Bulgaria’s Tervel Pulev (16-0, 13 KOs) in a main event Triller Fight Club will televise as part of a pay-per-view show from The Forum in Inglewood, California.
A week earlier, Alvarez-Bivol will headline a DAZN pay-per-view show from T-Mobile Arena ($59.99 for subscribers; $79.99 for non-subscribers).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
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Canelo: Bivol's Gonna Be More Difficult Than Kovalev; He's Strong, Young, Really Good Fighter - BoxingScene.com
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