There is no doubt that Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs) is a full fledged light heavyweight after his stunning knockout of Sergey ‘Krusher’ Kovalev (34-4-1, 29 KOs) on Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas to claim the WBO world title.
Many boxing fans questioned if the Mexican superstar would be too small for the much larger Russian puncher, but he was able to not only take the best punches, he hurt the Krusher with his own combos.
Canelo who only has one professional defeat to Floyd Mayweather Jr. keeps showing how dominant a force he is in boxing by methodically breaking down his opponents and taking their best weapons away from them.
The first few rounds of the fight were feeling out rounds with Kovalev moving off the backfoot trying to use a touch jab to keep Canelo away.
Kovalev relied on a jab but was being too predictable and Canelo saw the openings especially when Kovalev would throw the overhand right he would leave himself open for a Canelo counter.
Canelo knew his opponent would tire late and showed patience until finally unleashing the knockout blows in the eleventh round.
The moment Canelo hurt Kovalev and wobbled him he finished him off with a left hook that dropped him and left him unconscious on the ropes, and the ref had no choice but to halt the fight.
This was one of Canelo’s most sensational knockouts and it comes against one of the best punchers in the light heavyweight division.
Canelo has now become a four weight division world champion having won titles at 154, 160, 168 and now 175 lbs.
This was a hall of fame worthy performance and there is no question that Canelo secured his ticket to Canastota tonight.
