It wasn’t easy, but Saul Alvarez (53-1-2) is now a 4-division world champion. Yesterday the Mexican defeated Sergey Kovalev (34-4-1) via TKO in the 11th round, capturing the WBO light heavyweight title.
Canelo, 29, was calm and stuck to the game plan all night long, not exchanging body or power shots with the Russian. Most of Kovalev’s shots were landing, but the former champ looked tired and at times it looked liked he was way too defensive.
Most would agree that Kovalev fought to survive, and not to win the fight. Kovalev was out-landed by Canelo in rounds 4 through 10, and not willing to mix it up. There was a chance that Kovalev might have been able to even out and get a draw if he’d won the 11th and 12th rounds. But Canelo stayed patient and pounced on Kovalev in the 11th round to knock him out.
Here’s what the winner had to say after the fight was over:
“We stuck to our game plan, and it was delayed a little bit, but overall it was successful,” Canelo Alvarez said in discussing his win over Kovalev.
“It was a close fight because he was defensive, he was closing up his guard. All he was doing was trying to get points, but we knew it would come. Everything came out the way we had planned.”
