Alvarez KO’s Kovalev to win 175-lb. title
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Eleider Alvarez dropped Sergey Kovalev three times in a brutal seventh round and won the 175-pound championship by knockout at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on Saturday night.
Alvarez ran his record to 24-0 (12 KOs) and sprinted around the ring as Kovalev stumbled back to his corner. Alvarez got the KO at 2:45 in the seventh as the sellout crowd of 5,642 at Etess Arena went wild.
Alvarez won the WBO light heavyweight titles and ended Kovalev’s reign atop the division. Alvarez, who once had surgery on his right hand, found the power in that hand to level Kovalev with a right and send him to the canvas. Alvarez, a Colombian, pounced and pounded away at Kovalev when he beat the 10 count and knocked him down two more times and referee David Fields ended the fight.
“It was a two (punch) combo that I have been throwing my whole career and we worked on it in camp,” Alvarez said. “I have always practiced that in camp and we thought it would work in this camp.”
This was the first major card in Atlantic City in four years.
Dmitry Bivol unanimously outpointed Isaac Chilemba to retain the WBA version of the 175-pound title.
There had been hopes to match Kovalev (32-3-1) against Bivol in a unification bout, perhaps later this year.
Alvarez caught Kovalev, who hasn’t been the same since consecutive defeats to Andre Ward, and put those plans on ice. His third knockdown left Kovalev on all fours and he sat motionless on the canvas as Alvarez took a victory leap into his corner.
Alvarez had used wins over Jean Pascal and Lucian Bute to earn a title shot.
“I wanted to show that I could stay strong and do good things,” Alvarez said. “His punches were not as hard as they were in the beginning of the fight.”
Bivol took it 116-112 on one scorecard, while two others had it 120-108, in convincing victory.
“Chilemba is a good fighter and he had champion spirit tonight,” Bivol said.
Kovalev had said he wanted a unification bout and a date with Bivol seemed on the horizon. Bivol only showed flashes of being to hang in there in a potential bout against Kovalev. Bivol, a Russian, worked the body and caught Chilemba in the sixth with a pair of quick jabs to the head. But he was never in a hurry to finish the fight and the restless crowd booed when the bout stagnated in the eighth round.
Chilemba, with former four-class champion Roy Jones Jr. in his corner, hung tight and kept the fight from completely getting away from him. He failed to throw the power punches in the later rounds he needed for a knockout to win the fight
Kovalev walked through the arena to a rousing ovation about two hours before the card was set to start on HBO and Bivol already had his sights set on what would have been the biggest fight of his career.
“If the fans want that fight, it will happen,” the 27-year-old Bivol said. “I just want to fight the best fighters.”
Who knows who he’ll get next.
The 35-year-old Kovalev could get a rematch — he was ahead on all three scorecards — but was dazed in the seventh and never mounted a comeback against the right and a left hook.
It was a thrilling ending to boxing’s return to the boardwalk for the first time in four years. Kovalev also headlined that Nov. 8, 2014 card and beat Bernard Hopkins in a championship bout on the last major night of boxing in Atlantic City.
The sport was flattened as the casinos dried up — five shuttered over that span — before a recent rebirth that included the June opening of the Hard Rock. The legalization of sports betting in New Jersey should only help the city land better cards, even if the heyday of the Mike Tyson fights and other heavyweight title fights are unlikely to return.
Top Rank promotes its first AC card since 2013 and has Philadelphia fighters Bryant Jennings and Jesse Hart on an Aug. 18 show at upscale Ocean Resort.
Etess Arena, which opened in 1990 as part of the Trump Taj Mahal, had its share of memorable bouts back in the day. Michael Moorer won a piece of the heavyweight championship in 1992, Hector Camacho beat Robero Duran in 1996, and George Foreman lost the last fight of his career to Shannon Briggs in 1997.
Kovalev had a bit of a following in New Jersey — he fought in three different AC venues in 2014 — and had rolled to a 30-0-1 record until his career as derailed by two consecutive losses to Andre Ward.
He won his next two bouts and used a renewed confidence under new trainer Abror Tursunpulatov to again become the light heavyweight champ.
“I lost my mind when I started to get famous,” Ward said this week. Now, he lost his title. Kovalev was originally slated to fight Marcus Browne until legal issues with the challenger raised concerns about moving forward with the bout.
Eleider proved quite the super sub — and now, champion.