If Eleider Alvarez loses.....?

Any time a guy demolishes his opponent the way Alvarez did, its not luck. I think he was fortunate that, in that moment, Kovalev had lost focus and was an inviting target for incoming artillery.

And in a larger sense, Alvarez was fortunate to run into Kovalev at a point where, judging by his actions and the words of John David Jackson, Kovalev's personal life isn't going great and his commitment to boxing his eroding. It definitely helped that he ran into that version of The Krusher, and not the guy who was happily bashing dozens of guys in a row into unconciousness.

I don't see it as a Buster Douglas scenario at all. I'm not going to say I'm a boxing genius who picks every fight flawlessly, but I thought it was pretty obvious that Alvarez was a threat to Kovalev. His resume was strong, even though he had most of his big wins by decision. Even if he losses this rematch, Alvarez is still world class and a rubber match, maybe with an intervening fight in the meantime, would make a lot of sense.

 

Depends on the manner of the loss. If Kovalev completely outboxes Alvarez and knock him out, then I guess we can say Alvarez got lucky the first time.

 

Kovalev got beat at his own game imo. Kovalev has a punchers chance in Rematch.
Alvarez's jab had Kovalev dancing numerous times.
Kovalev is like a sinking ship that's on fire at this point.
It would be Come Back of the Year award.

 

I think Kov is done

 

I wasnt that impressed with kovalev in the first fight

i thought his reflexes seem diminished and he was getting hit flush often prior to getting caught.

also like vs Ward 2 he was barely leading and lost tide of the fight with a long way to go. I think if you make kovalev fight he wears quickly

when he has guys who can't deal with his power he can fight a measured pace until he breaks a guy. ward in the rematch upped the pace dramatically compared to the first fight and kovalev faded in 6 or 7 rounds

 

Not at all....He perfectly timed that deadly shot and I would bet the house any other fighter would have struggled to recover too

 

Nawwwwww....He still got some fire but it just does not but burn as brightly

 

I don't think he should be in the ring. All of the drama and the courts will take their toll. Without the drama, sure he is still a top guy. But man you lose sleep over that stuff.

 

I think Kovalev will make a concerted effort to not get stopped this time around. Now he is well aware of Alvarez's power and will be more defensively sound. I think the more likely scenario is for this to go the distance in a close competitive fight.

 

You might be right... but we'll see.

 

The reason I wouldn't consider Alvarez 'lucky' is because he was the WBC's no.1 contender for a long time. Adonis Stevenson ducked him for maybe 5 fights. So for me he's not lucky to have gotten a title fight. He fought a Kovalev who hadn't been the same since the first Ward fight, has a drinking problem, and changed trainers. I don't know how much has changed for Kova except he's now facing charges of a assaulting a woman and probably a law suit following that. If Alvarez is lucky it may be that he didn't end up getting his shot against Stevenson. Had Alvarez beat him he may've faced a different one to the one he fought last year, and this week.

 

No. He executed a good plan in the first fight (to let Kovalev bombard his defense and get tired to finish him later). The stoppage came earlier than he and his team had expected, but even that is not luck — things like that happen in boxing.

 

But how much of a distraction was it for Kovalev to get arrested for punching an actress in the face and kicking her dog right before he fought Alvarez? Do you think that affected his performance and played a large role in him getting stopped. He said he had no energy for that fight in the ESPN interview. Perhaps he was preoccupied with the whole ordeal, it sounded like it affected his preparation. Also how was it that it wasn't known to the public that he had been arrested last summer? Usually when somebody gets arrested especially for causing bodily harm that news is released to the public. How was Kovalev or his team able to sweep that under the rug so no one knew about it?