CANELO LOOKS TO CONQUER FOURTH WEIGHT CLASS VS KOVALEV
Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is moving up two weight classes to challenge WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev on Saturday, Nov 2. The event will be streamed on DAZN and will take place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
If victorious against Kovalev, Alvarez would become a 4-division world champion. Kovalev is another big name on Alvarez’s already stellar resume, which includes wins over Gennady Golovkin, Miguel Cotto, Daniel Jacobs, Amir Khan, Erislandy Lara and many more. The only loss on his record is a majority decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013.
One of the top stories during fight week is Alvarez’s rocky relationship with his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya. This stems from an article by The Athletic that expressed Alvarez’s feelings about Golden Boy’s CEO. But for now, Alvarez has agreed that his relationship with De La Hoya is a “working relationship”.
The last outing for Alvarez (52-1-2, 35 KO) was a unanimous decision win over Jacobs in May. In the bout against Jacobs, Alvarez displayed impressive head movement and defense in what may be considered one of the best wins of his career.
Since losing a controversial decision to Andre Ward in 2016, Sergey Kovalev’s career appeared to be on a downward slope. He lost a rematch to Ward in 2017 via eighth-round TKO, and after a two-fight win streak, lost to Eleider Alvarez in August of 2018.
However, Kovalev (34-3-1, 29 KO) avenged the loss to Alvarez in February of this year, winning a unanimous decision to regain the WBO title taken from him by Alvarez.
Kovalev’s most recent bout was a title defense against the previously undefeated Anthony Yarde in August. After surviving an onslaught by Yarde in the eighth round, Kovalev came back to stop the previously unbeaten contender in the 11th with a left jab.
The co-headliner of the card features prospect and social media phenom Ryan Garcia, taking on arguably the toughest challenge of his young career in Romero Duno. Garcia-Duno will be a 12-round bout contested in the lightweight division.
Garcia (18-0, 15 KO) is one of Golden Boy Promotions’ most popular prospects. His ability to attract female viewers to his fights is almost reminiscent of Oscar De La Hoya’s (his promoter) stardom in the 1990’s. As a result of his popularity and potential for superstardom, Garcia has been brought along in the professional ranks quite carefully.
The last bout for Garcia was TKO over Jose Lopez after two rounds in March. Garcia’s best win so far though, is a unanimous decision victory over former world title challenger Jayson Velez in 2018.
Duno (21-1, 16 KO) just fought less than two months ago, winning via TKO over Ivan Delgado after seven rounds on Sept. 14.
Also on the card is undefeated prospect Bakhram Murtazaliev taking on Jorge Fortea in a super welterweight bout.
Murtazaliev (16-0, 13 KO), of Russia, is coming off of two consecutive knockout wins so far this year. The most recent of the two was a first-round TKO over Bruno Leonardo Romay in April.
In his last bout, Fortea (20-1-1, 6 KO) stopped Khalid Habchane after five rounds in his home country of Spain in August.