Kovalev vs Alvarez Preview

Kovalev vs Alvarez Preview

By Oliver McManus

Canelo Alvarez continues his multi-multi-million DAZN deal as he challenges Sergey Kovalev this weekend. The Russian’s WBO light heavyweight title will be on the line with the Mexican in his first fight at 175lbs.

At the beginning of the year Kovalev vs Canelo wouldn’t have featured prominently on the list of fights you wanted, or expected, to see. Mind you at the beginning of 2018 you wouldn’t have put money on Rocky Fielding to face the Mexican, either. Despite its relative bewilderment, though rumours circled for a while, the contest itself looks set to intrigue.

The three-weight world champion, turned challenger, enters the fight as a hefty favourite (1/4 with some bookies). Those odds are a representation of his quite breezy success over the last few years at middleweight but stepping up 15lbs brings a new host of challenges. Certainly Canelo is a big middleweight, and he didn’t struggle getting to super-middle, but it doesn’t seem as though he’s carried that power through to an elite level.

His most recent stoppages have come against a trio of Englishmen: Rocky Fielding, Liam Smith and Amir Khan all falling short. Yet at a world level he’s not been able to knock strong-chinned contenders over with particular regularity; there tends to have been a susceptible weakness that’s got exposed.

He has remained at the top of the sport for near on a decade – his first world title arrived in 2011 – and is still to his his 30s.

Of course the sport relies on more than just power and he’s supremely well rounded; fighting at an eager pace and able to control proceedings against even the most keen challengers.

Sergey Kovalev, meanwhile, has defied expectations on a number of occasions. The Russian has continually been in world title fights since August 2013 – 16 in all, 13 victories – and has repeatedly toppled challengers inside the distance. His three career losses have come against Andre Ward – one contentious, the other less so – and Eleider Alvarez – though that was latter avenged.

Despite the adage going that ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks’, Kovalev has visibly learned from those defeats. In the rematch with Alvarez he was more defensively astute and more measured in his approach. At the age of 36 you’d be forgiven for assuming he’s entering the backend of his career but the repeated WBO champion keeps impressing.

British challenger Anthony Yarde found this out much to his detriment. Yarde is by no means a polished fighter but he was an unknown quantity dealt with by Kovalev well within walking pace. It’s questionable whether that slower pace was by choice or forced upon him by Yarde’s aggression. He looked both beatable yet stuck to his strengths expertly.

The jab from the Russian is continually a thing of beauty. The word ramrod is often overused but cannot be understated with regards Kovalev. It is the most basic of shots in the boxing arsenal yet, when worked well, the most controlling. The frequency, and variety, with which Kovalev flicks away the jab keeps his challengers on the outside – it stops them from harassing and haranguing him up close.

That’s going to be key for Kovalev. Time and time again Canelo takes the fight from the pocket, he is a pressure fighter that overwhelms his counterpart. If Kovalev is able to use his jab as wisely as against Yarde, despite the wildly different proposition in front of him, it could be a long and unpleasant evening for Canelo Alvarez.

If the Mexican behemoth is able to navigate past the Russian then mark him down as one of the first fighters to usurp the shadow of Floyd Mayweather.

Photo Credit: Amanda Westcott / DAZN