One of boxing’s greatest stars, Canelo Alvarez made his debut in the light heavyweight division and delivered a vicious two punch combo to bring WBO champion Sergey Kovalev down like a ragdoll.
The crowd definitely brought the roof of MGM Grand Garden Arena down as Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs) became the only active boxer to hold world titles in three different divisions at the same time, which includes the unified middleweight champion, 168-pound title, and the lightheavyweight title.
Kovalev (34-4-1, 29 KOs) had four inch advantages over Alvarez in terms of height and reach. Alvarez had to soak up tons of jabs from Kovalev while patiently trying to close the distance and waiting to land his counter punches.
“The plan overall was patience, that was basically it, to have patience,” Alvarez said. “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.”