Alvarez Steps Up For Kovalev Test

Mexican star Canelo is moving all the way from middleweight to light-heavy to challenge Sergey Kovalev for the WBO world title, writes John Dennen.

- John Dennen

LAST Saturday was September 14, Mexican Independence weekend, and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez was not fighting. It has been a long time since the superstar from Jalisco did not fight on the date which he has made his own. A potential third fight with Gennady Golovkin was left for another year, the IBF middleweight title, which he only won in May, was stripped from him but Canelo was still obliged to wait. The Mexican, who is a middleweight, had been targeting Sergey Kovalev and on November 2, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, he will jump up two divisions to challenge the Russian for the WBO light-heavyweight title.

It is a meaningful fight. Kovalev is a three-time world titlist with an intimidating track record. “Kovalev is a dangerous puncher, and he’s naturally the bigger man, but that’s the kind of challenges and risks that I like to face,” Alvarez said. “The second phase of my career is continuing just as we had planned, and that’s why we are continuing to make great fights to enter into the history books of boxing.”

The last time Alvarez ventured out of his weight class came in December of last year, when he beat Rocky Fielding in three straightforward rounds at Madison Square Garden. This fight with Kovalev though is everything that one wasn’t. The WBA super-middleweight belt that Canelo won from Fielding was the spurious secondary offering, with Callum Smith holding the only WBA belt that should matter in the division.