After a six-month period, Sergey Kovalev has lost his world light heavyweight title. Sergey Kovalev was disappointed by his knockout loss to Eleider Alvarez, also known as “The Storm”, who won the title back in a unanimous decision during the main event of the Top Rank Boxing match broadcasted on ESPN+ last Saturday.
Kovalev described his previous loss as a “fluke” and admitted to running out of energy in the later rounds due to overtraining. This time, in front of 4,877 fans at the Ford Center at the Star, the Dallas Cowboys training facility, he faced none of those issues.
Many expected Alvarez to repeat his victory, but Kovalev won the fight with scores of 116-112, 116-112, and surprisingly a shutout 120-108. ESPN also scored the fight 116-112 in favor of Kovalev, making him a three-time light heavyweight champion.
In August 2018, Alvarez was behind on all three scorecards before staging a comeback with three knockdowns in the seventh round, ultimately pulling off an upset knockout victory over Kovalev in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Kovalev immediately sought a rematch after that loss, acknowledging his overtraining and vowing to reverse the outcome in the second bout. He parted ways with Abror Tursunpulatove and enlisted the help of veteran trainer Buddy McGirt, a former two-division world titleholder, and Teddy Cruz.
