CANELO IS A MAN IN DEMAND
As Kovalev rules out retirement, the Russian’s performance against Alvarez inspires others to try and beat the Mexican
SERGEY KOVALEV has had a hard time of it of late. The fights he has won have been gruelling, while the defeats, three in the last three-and-a-half years, have been crushing, hard to take and slowly ushering him towards retirement.
Now 36, the Russian is without a title, having earlier this month been stopped in 11 rounds by Saul “Canelo” Alvarez,
and would be forgiven for walking off into the sunset with his career-high payday. But that, according to his promoter, Kathy Duva, isn’t the plan – not yet anyway.
“In the end, the decision is his, but in the ring he told me he was going to fight again,” Duva told Bad Left Hook. “So I don’t expect he’s going to change his mind. It was Canelo’s speed that made the difference in the end. Sergey’s not going to encounter that speed with bigger guys.”
Some before the fight suggested Kovalev, 34-4-1 (29), was simply happy to have been chosen by Canelo. They said he was happy to be there, happy to surrender his WBO light-heavyweight title for the kind of money only the Mexican can these days guarantee. Yet Duva says this is wide of the mark and reckons Kovalev not only believed he would win the fight but wasn’t too far away from doing so on the night, either.
“Of course he’s quite disappointed, because wow, he came so close,” she said. “But he fought a great fighter, he made one mistake, Canelo made him pay, that’s how it works.
“Listen, all praise to Canelo, he took it away from him. That’s what the chess match is about, it’s about taking away your opponent’s strongest asset.
“In the end, we thought Sergey’s right hand would be the determining factor and Canelo thought his body punching would be the determining factor. Turns out neither one of them was. Sergey took the body shots and Canelo shut down his right hand. So, that’s why they fight the fights. [It was] not what anybody would have ever expected.”
Billy Joe Saunders, meanwhile, says he is prepared to chase Alvarez all the way to light-heavyweight if it means securing what he believes he deserves. It is strongly rumoured he could get the Mexican in May 2020.
Saunders, a natural middleweight and former WBO champion at that weight, is currently enjoying his reign as WBO super-middleweight champion, though flattered to deceive a defence against Marcelo Coceres on November 9.
The Hatfield man, clearly in need of a serious test, said the performance in Los Angeles didn’t warrant a fight against the likes of Canelo and Daniel Jacobs but that clearly won’t stop his pursuit of them. Saunders, 29-0 (14), told Sky Sports: “It’d be a very tough challenge but there is something inside of me that I’ve known since day one when I turned pro. I knew our paths would cross and I’m 100 per cent sure that I’d beat him.
“I might move up to 175lbs and then I become mandatory to him. He either fights me or vacates. Give me a fair playing field and I know I have the beating of him. I do have the lock to undo Canelo. I’m feeling the best I have, I’m ready to
‘MAYWEATHER IS THE ONLY MAN TO BEAT HIM. I KNOW I CAN BE THE SECOND’
rock and roll, I want these big fights.
“It’s the fight that I want next. I want Canelo because they keep saying he’s the best. Floyd Mayweather is the only man to beat him, but I know I can be the second man to beat him.”
It’s a statement hard to take seriously on the surface given Saunders’ recent form but, equally, if you know anything about Billy Joe Saunders and the talent he possesses, you’ll know he’s far more likely to have fun and look good against someone like Canelo Alvarez than he is against someone like Marcelo Coceres. As bizarre as it sounds, it’s true.
Also bizarre was UFC star Jorge Masvidal this week claiming he is “10times the athlete” Canelo Alvarez is and suggesting it takes more to be a mixed martial artist than it does to be a boxer.
The popular welterweight, recently seen stopping Nate Diaz in New York, has been calling for a fight against Alvarez for a couple of weeks and doesn’t seem in the mood to settle down. In fact, he is now adamant he not only wants to box Alvarez
– in a ring, in his domain – but that what he does in the Octagon is beyond the capabilities of the Mexican superstar.
“I consider myself 10 times the athlete [Canelo] is just because of MMA in general,” Masvidal told the Dan Le Batard Show on ESPN.
“All the strength, speed and power you have to generate to throw one kick is like throwing 10 right hands. The energy it takes to wrestle and pick somebody up in the air... boxing’s just your weight, nobody cares.
“If I could shift those energy blocks and bring them down to boxing where I’m throwing 80 or 90 punches a round, I feel I could hurt this dude.
“I definitely agree that if [Alvarez] was to go to MMA, it wouldn’t be a challenge because I’ve thrown 10,000 left high-kicks in a month and he’s never done one.
“It’s kind of the same thing to boxing, where if I’ve thrown a million jabs, then he’s thrown 10 million because that’s all his focus.
“That being said, there’s still an element that I could put his ass to sleep. Maybe I don’t hit harder, but I’m definitely bigger.”
The last time a mixed martial artist shared a boxing ring with a professional boxer it didn’t turn out well for Conor Mcgregor in Las Vegas. However, Masvidal says a fight between him and Alvarez would be an entirely different proposition and that the awkwardness Mcgregor brought to the table against Mayweather would be just the tip of the iceberg.
“I could definitely make a statement and even it out for MMA, my sport,” he said. “There [are] still things in boxing that are a part of boxing. I just feel I could beat him up in some areas. Does he have a better jab and left hook than me? Yeah, of course. But there’s still elements where I could make it awkward for him, just like Conor did to Mayweather.
“Those are the mountains I like to scale. If I’m going into boxing, I want the best guy they got.”
Somehow Masvidal’s logic is both admirable and flawed.