HBO World Championship Boxing heads to the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey on Aug. 4, with a light heavyweight championship double-header, Sergey Kovalev vs Eleider Alvarez, Dmitry Bivol vs Isaac Chilemba.
The Krusher Sergey Kovalev (32-2-1, 28 KOs) made a huge comeback when he decided to change up his lifestyle and redicated himself to boxing, he fired long time trainer John David Jackson and felt he was just there to collect a check and not help him.
Since losing to Andre Ward back to back, and leaving Jackson, he relocated to Oxnard, California and won the vacant WBO 175 pound title by defeating Vyacheslav Shabranskyy by TKO and defended it in impressive fashion by stopping Igor Mikhalkin.
Tonight Kovalev will take on a stern test, when he faces the undefeated Colombian boxer Eleider Alvarez. (23-0, 11 KOs).
Alvarez has impressive victories over name fighters Edison Miranda, Isaac Chilemba, Lucian Bute, and Jean Pascal, he is fighting for a legit world title for the first time tonight when he takes on Kovalev for the WBO strap.
This will be the toughest test for the Colombian born boxer, he will try and rely on his boxing skills to outbox the very powerful punching Russian champion. If he tastes his punch it could be lights out so he has to fight the perfect fight to come home with the belt.
The opening bout of the broadcast features the current WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol (13-0, 11 KOs) of St. Petersburg, Russia against veteran boxer Isaac Chilemba (25-5-2, 10 KOs) of Malawi.
Bivol at only 27 years old and 13 pro fights is a solid champion, he is coming off an impressive TKO victory of the very difficult slick Cuban boxer Sullivan Barrera, that win made people realize he is the real deal. Barrera is one of the hardest fighters to look good against in the division and Bivol was the first to stop him.
Tonight Bivol will have a much easier title defense in Chilemba, he is heavily favored to win, it would be a huge upset should the underdog from Malawi beat the young champion tonight.
Sergey Kovalev vs Eleider Alvarez, Dmitry Bivol vs Isaac Chilemba LIVE on August 4, 2018 at 10/7 PM ET/PT on HBO World Championship Boxing.
