START WITH BOXING
CANELO CAN KO KOVALEV He’ll bow out with treat
THE old boxing saying is that a good big one will always beat a good little one.
But when Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez takes on Sergey Kovalev in the early hours of tomorrow in Las Vegas, the question is: how good is the big Russian now?
WBO lightheavyweight champion Kovalev is obviously the natural at the weight and he will have both height and reach advantages.
But his best days are surely behind him.
And if
Alvarez
(inset, with Kovalev) needs to know how to beat the big-punching light-heavyweight, then he only needs to look at Anthony Yarde’s performance against him last time out.
We took Yarde, who was 18-0 with limited amateur experience, to Russia to take on Kovalev when nobody gave him a chance.
It was a gamble and you have to roll the dice in this sport sometimes, but it nearly paid off as our man was within seconds of stopping Kovalev. Yarde showed
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Interview by CHRIS McKENNA the way to beat Kovalev and that is with constant pressure, not allowing the heavy-handed Russian to get into his rhythm.
Alvarez may be smaller and may not be a natural at the weight, but he will not have gone up in weight unless he was supremely confident he can pull this off.
This won’t be a big gamble in Las Vegas for the Mexican. You have to give him massive credit as he bids to win a version of the world title in a fourth weight division. He could just sit at middleweight and make easy defences of his titles but he has been bold by jumping between weights.
There are not many better than him in world boxing, with Alvarez definitely in the top three pound for pound in the sport.
In the next week we are hoping to announce Daniel Dubois’ next opponent as we prepare to get the rising heavyweight star in action again next month. hasn’t missed any of my last 44 fights, my best mate Rob,” said Crolla. “I think he’s happy that it’s all over because of the money he has had to spend over the years!”
The high for Crolla was not beating Perez to become champion but defending the WBA belt against Barroso when he was expected to lose.
“To be introduced by Michael Buffer as a world champion and to go out still as a world champion, that was probably my best night,” he said.
Tonight is the final farewell and for the first time his son Jesse, six, will see his dad fight.
“I hope he sticks to the football,” said Crolla, who plans to focus on being a trainer when he retires. “I don’t want to be back here in 15 years doing his corner at Manchester Arena.”