Canelo Álvarez At Light Heavyweight ~ A Much Needed Reality Check.

Why not?
Kovalev before this fight had Yarde. Yeah, he won in 11 th round. In this fight 2 rounds were rounds where Kovalev barely survived. Then he somewhat managed to " survive " and had to do very hard work to stop Yarde.
Kovalev also had been stopped in 7 th round by Eilder, guy floored Kovalev 3 times.

Ward had fought vs 31 y.o Kovalev with 9-0 record in title fights and 3 belts: WBA, IBF, WBO belts.
Ward retired when he was 33 y.o. People think that boxer must be the same when he is 30, 33, 36, 37 and so on.

 

He's out of shape it already started

 

Because I've never really been impressed with Canelo's skillset compared to other ATG's. Kovalev was winning rounds and was clearly winning on my card before the KO. Kovalev used his height, reach and jab effectively to minimize Canelo's punch output but couldn't keep the pace for the full 12 rounds due to Canelo's viscous counters and body shots.

 

Well thats what breaking somebody down means....

 

Canelo, I doubt that he will survive the light heavyweight division. And maybe with a miracle, if he succeeds, he will be considered one of the greatest boxers of all times. But let's admit it, that won't ever happen, because I've been hearing a lot of people talking about Canelo's drug test, Canelo cherry picking fights now, and other situations that are just negative in all ways. I will pray for Canelo R.I.P XD

 

I had been wrong with too much predictions about Kovalev that I didn't had bet on their fight vs Canelo.
First Kovalev fight vs Eleider: he managed to floor Kovalev 3 times. Kovalev get a lot there.
For second their fight I had assumed that Eleider will win again. Kovalev 35 y 10 months old. Opponent already had tasted that he might get Kovalev down and 3 times. More confidence, motivation to train. Pride and honour, already had proved that he might finish Kovalev.
Upset for me. Kovalev won him via UD and looked not bad.
Yarde fight. I assumed that Kovalev most likely will won him via UD. Yarde didn't had enough very high level fights experience.
Yeah, Kovalev was 36 years 4 months old. Ward had retired when he was 33 y.o and DLH when he was 36 y.o.
Kovalev fought normally and then Upset. Yarde gave him 2 rounds of hell, most likely next such round Kovalev did not had survived and had been finished. Kovalev somewhat managed to survive and turn fight in his hands. Maybe also cos Yarde looked tired.
I had idea that he might retire because he was polite after fight and gave Yarde credit, valued highly his fighting in this fight.
Nope, again upset. Kovalev fights next fight.
Can't predict Kovalev.

 

Boxing is so unpredictable isn't it. It's the theater of the unexpected which is why we love it so much and can never seem to predict what's going to happen. Everyone thought Kovalev would easily beat Eleider Alvarez. Everyone was shocked when he was stopped. Then everyone assumed this must mean he's completely shot and totally done. Then he proceeds to outbox Eleider in the rematch. Then the Yarde fight, back and forth, could go either way. Kovalev digs down deep and finds a way to win. Maybe this means the Krusher is back. But then he agrees to fight Canelo, so now we have to completely re-examine everything and argue he's shot again even though he just proved he wasn't so that Canelo will get no credit if he wins. At the same time Canelo has no chance since "there's weight divisions for a reason" and since Canelo can't possibly have the power to knock out any Light Heavyweight because that would destroy the idea that Canelo is actually a great fighter and isn't really anything special and just gets gift decisions everyone because judges are so wowed by how good looking he is. Then Canelo proceeds to knock Kovalev out clean after Kovalev proves he wasn't shot for 10 rounds arguably winning the match up to that point. However we can't give Canelo credit for anything so we complain about a rehydraton limit or Kovalev being shot even though he just proved he wasn't 3 fights in a row.

 

Kovalev was badly hurt and was almost KO'd by a prospect in Yarde. Then he wasn't afforded a proper resting period beaten going right back into camp for the Clenelo fight. On top of that, Clenelo hung a noose in the form of a rehydration clause around his neck.

Kovalev had zero snap in his punches on the night and his punch resistance was completely gone.

 

Describing a rehydration clase, which is standard in IBF Title matches, as a noose is a tad dramatic. A catchweight would have been unfair to Kovalev. But a rehydration clause? That's histrionics. Wanna know why? Kovalev was never known to balloon up in weight after making the weigh-in. There's no indication that he struggled whatsoever to stay within 10 lbs. He likely came in well under the 10-lb limit the next morning. However I personally would have preferred there wasn't a rehydration clause just so somebody like you wouldn't use it as an excuse afterwards. And the rehydration limit was probably something that DLH insisted on, I doubt Canelo had any say whatsoever in that being insisted. What makes me say that? Remember when Canelo was stripped of the IBF for not fighting Derevyanchenko? Remember Canelo's statements after that happened, he was upset and said he had no idea that he was even about to be stripped :

https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterk...-title-could-be-a-blessing-for-fans-and-dazn/

Canelo's statement : I'm very upset and ashamed with my fans, to be unfairly stripped of my belt by the IBF, but specially when i did not have the knowledge of the agreement that GBP match maker had signed.

Fighters generally leave these kinds of things in the hands of their promoters. Negotations, who they fight, timetables, etc. Canelo clearly had no idea what was going on between his promoter and the IBF that resulted in him being stripped. And once that match fell through and he was stripped of that iBF, then he was left without an opponent for September and caused him to consider moving up to 175.

As far as the short camp, that I understand as something that may have been a strain on Kovalev. But what control did Canelo have over the timeframe of that? Are you trying to argue that Canelo himself was trying to gain an advantage there? DAZN probably insisted on that fight being made quickly and Kovalev was the fight they wanted since he was the biggest name Canelo could fight since he had not fought in September. So while you make a fair point about the short camp for Kovalev, I don't think it's fair to attribute that or blame Canelo himself for that happening.

 

Canelo if compare with Kovalev always will be very suspicious.
He if fighting in Vegas. Kovalev fought in Russia, U.K, Canada, U.K.