Sergey Kovalev dominates Eleider Alvarez to reclaim theWBO light heavyweight title
The Krusher is back!
Sergey Kovalev put on a dominant performance from the opening bell until the final bell in his rematch with Eleider Alvarez.
Back in August of 2018, Kovalev suffered a shocking upset to Alvarez. He was stopped in the seventh round, subsequently losing the WBO light heavyweight championship. Fast forward a few months, Kovalev brings in his second new trainer in three years, Buddy McGirt. McGirt, himself, is a hall of fame trainer and was a former multi-weight champion as a fighter. Evidently, this tandem worked perfectly.
From the onset, the challenger came out composed behind his powerful jab. On the advice of McGirt, Kovalev would stay patient and systematically break Alvarez down throughout the course of the fight. Using feints and his superior ability to box from the outside, “Krusher” was always in position to attack and defend. Each round, for the majority of the fight mirrored, the previous ones; it was jabs, right hands and feints.
Alvarez did manage to land some hard right-hands that momentarily buzzed Kovalev. However, as the fight wore on, it was clear that Kovalev was the superior fighter and wouldn’t be denied redemption.
At the conclusion of the fight, the judges confirmed what we all had witnessed; a one-sided boxing lesson. The judges, all in agreement, would declare Kovalev the winner with scores of 116-112×2 and 120-108.
This win puts “Krusher” back in a familiar position as champion. Unification bouts with the other champions such as Artur Beterbiev, Dimitry Bivol and Oleksandr Gvozdy loom down the line. As for Alvarez, his short title reign ends after a dud of a performance.
By: Jerrell Fletcher
