LAS VEGAS — Canelo Alvarez, constantly driven to make boxing history, secured another piece of it on Saturday night — but it was not easy.
Alvarez, having a very hard time dealing with Sergey Kovalev’s size and jab, scored a massive 11th-round knockout to win take his light heavyweight world title at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday night to add significantly to an already stellar resume.
Alvarez, the reigning middleweight world champion and boxing’s biggest star, moved up 15 pounds and two weight divisions and won a world title in a fourth division to join some of boxing’s all-time greats.
He was having a devil of a time, but Alvarez got the job impressively to become only the third former junior middleweight titleholder to also win a belt at light heavyweight, a spread of 21 pounds (154 to 175). The others are enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame, where Alvarez surely will join them someday: Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns and Mike McCallum.
Alvarez, who would like to eventually usurp Julio Cesar Chavez as Mexico’s all-time best fighter, became the fourth Mexican to win world titles in four divisions, joining Hall of Famer Erik Morales and Juan Manuel Marquez and Jorge Arce, who are both on this year’s ballot for the first time. Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KOs), 29, of Mexico, has also won titles at junior middleweight, middleweight and super middleweight.
In addition, Alvarez became only the second Mexican to win a light heavyweight title; the late Julio Gonzalez briefly held a 175-pound belt in late 2003 and early 2004.
In a main event that was held up by broadcaster DAZN for more than an hour to await the conclusion of UFC 244 in New York, hoping to attract subscribers who also wanted to watch Canelo-Kovalev live. But by waiting, the fighters were shown nearly asleep in their dressing rooms before the fight, which did not begin until 1:18 a.m. ET.
Inside the arena, the UFC main event was shown on the big screens. MGM Grand officials sought permission from UFC broadcaster ESPN, which gave the OK.
They began at a measured pace with Alvarez look for a way inside against the taller man and Kovalev (34-4-1, 29 KOs), 36, a Russia native fighting out of Los Angeles, steady employing his jab and mixing in a few hooks.
Alvarez said he would make a body attack a major part of his game plan because of Kovalev’s perceived weakness to those shots and he got going with it in the second round. He landed several to the midsection with both hands to force Kovalev to step back.
Kovalev’s jab, as expected, was his best weapon. He doubled and tripled up on it but he also mixed in body shots and hooks as Alvarez continued to have a hard time getting inside on him
The crowd began to chant
Alvarez forced Kovalev back early in the sixth round with a solid hook and followed with a shot to the belly and then seemed to stun him with a left hook to the head.
The crowd began to chant “Canelo! Canelo!” in the seventh round as he stalked forward and fired hooks and body shots as Kovalev tied him up.
Kovalev continued to have success with his jab in the ninth round. He shoved one down the middle and followed with a right hand that connected midway through the round. Kovalev had a big 10th round thanks to — what else — his jab. He fired them one after another while Alvarez barely got anything off.
But in the 11th round, Alvarez changed the fight with two massive punches. He landed a left hook on the chin that badly hurt Kovalev and had him nearly out on his feet, before following with a hellacious right hand on the chin that sent Kovalev collapsing to the mat onto his knees and with his body turned toward the ring ropes and partially hanging over them.
Kovalev appeared out cold, and referee Russell Mora immediately waved off the fight without a count at 2 minutes, 15 seconds.