First, i don't like Canelo Alvarez. I think he's the epitome of what is going wrong in todays boxing. A guy who is a caught PED cheat now is moving between 160 and 175. He looks even more ripped at 175 than at 160. I don't like Paulie but he's totally right here: It's a joke. Everyone knows whats going on here. A junior middleweight, a natural Lightweight, now fighting the elite at 175. Yes, Kovalev IS acutally ELITE at 175. Still. He's a legit Top 5 fighter at 175 and thats elite. Second, i give Canelo Alvarez soooo much credit for taking the fight though. I'm boxing on my own since being a kid, like 20 years now, and i know how hard it is to fight guys who are taller & bigger and how difficult it is to work against those fighters in your damn head. I'm not talking about skills. I'm just talking about the mental game. Alvarez might be roided as **** but you can't roid the head and the mental game. BIG, BIG CREDIT. I don't like him, but he deserves it. I didn't give him much credit for the Rocky Fielding fight though but overall he even deserved it there. Third, i was picking Kovalev. I had a decent sized bet on Kovalev although i hedged it with Canelo to win in 7-12 and so i didn't lose money at all in the end but still didn't win what i wanted to win. I was wrong. Not particulary about the fight in general. I think it was a close fight where Kovalev was definitely winning the first 4 or 5 rounds. I had it like 5-1 Kovalev after 6. And 5-5 after 10. So yeah, the value was on Kovalevs side. So to all the Canelo fangirls: No, it wasn't an one-sided beatdown. It wasn't a massacre. It was good win in the end, fair and square, but no, your boy didn't dominate and your boy was barely winning after 10 rounds. I'm happy to see the judges gave Kovalev the credit he deserved. So...what we can take from this fight? As i wrote before: I give Canelo a lot of credits for taking the fight. But let's face the truth here. Kovalev isn't a young, hungry lion at 175. He's still a world class fighter but he's declining and he didn't came to fight, he came to box. He never really commited to his right hand. It was a matter of time until he gets tired and Canelo catching him with something big. By the way: Everyone who says Kovalev is a quitter or took a dive: Please GTFOH. Disgusting pieces of trash. Go, enter a gym, box on your own. He didn't do that. This was a legit Knockout. Canelo Alvarez is the legit #1 P4P now. He has the best overall package: net worth, marketing-wise, resume, skills. Don't come along with such clowns like Crawford. Come on. Canelo is legit #1 now. BUT...please be realistic if it comes to Canelo and other LHWs. Beterbiev would wreck Canelo. He would destroy him. He's a different kind of animal. I'm not even sure if he beats Gvozdyk or Bivol. It might get interesting if Canelo stays at 175 though. I would love to see that. I don't see any big fights at 160. GGG is done imo at that level. Andrade is boring as hell. And apart from that there is nobody who deserves a title shot right now.
