WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev needed two tries before making weight at 175 lbs. on Friday for his title defense against superstar Saul Canelo Alvarez this Saturday. Kovalev weighed in at 175.25 lbs on his first try. He stripped everything in the process of trying to make weight, but it failed to work.
Sergey went back to his dressing room, and took the remaining quarter pound off, and returned to make weight on the button at 175. Canelo weighed in at 174.5 lbs.
Canelo & Kovalev have a secondary weigh-in on Saturday
This won’t be the last time the two weigh-in, as they have secondary weigh-in on Saturday as part of the rehydration clause. Obviously, this wasn’t Kovalev’s idea. Both fighters can’t be any heavier than 185 lbs in order to avoid paying a weight penalty, according to ESPN. It’s unclear who’s idea it was to put the rehydration clause in the contract because Canelo should be beyond these things at this point in his career. The 29-year-old Canelo has already got an advantage of being much younger the 36-year-old Kovalev.
DAZN wanted Canelo to fight former IBF/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin in a trilogy match, but he instead decided to move up two weight classes to face Kovalev. With the big 11-fight, $365 million contract DAZN is paying Canelo, he needs to face opposition that will bring in the subscribers. If it wasn’t Kovalev, Canelo would need to fight these type of opponents to bring in the subscribers to DAZN:
- Artur Beterbiev
- Callum Smith
- Dmitry Bivol
- Billy Joe Saunders
- Gennady Golovkin
- Sergiy Derevyanchenko
- Jermall Charlo
- Demetrius Andrade
Those are all tough outs for Canelo, especially Beterbiev and Bivol. Although a lot is made about how great Canelo is, the fact is he barely beat Golovkin and Jacobs. Those guys are at Canelo’s level, but not as popular as him. Canelo needs to fight the trilogy match with Golovkin because that’s the fight DAZN wants. If Canelo doesn’t take that fight soon, he could mess things up if the aging 37-year-old GGG gets beaten by one of his opponents. He almost lost his last fight to Derevyanchenko on October 5.
Undercard weights:
Ryan Garcia 135 vs. Romero Duno 135
Seniesa Estrada 110.5 vs. Marlen Esparza 111
Blair Cobbs 147 vs. Carlos Ortiz 146
Evan Holyfield 154 vs Nick Winstead 156
Bakhram Murtazaliev 154 vs Jorge Fortea 153.5
Tristan Kalkreuth 188 vs Twon Smith 188.5
Meiirim Nursultanov 160 vs Cristian Olivas 160
Bekertim Melikuziev 175 vs Clay Collard 171
Lightweight contender Ryan Garcia (18-0, 15 KOs) is facing the tough #4 WBO Romero Duno (21-1, 16 KO) in a 12 round fight in the co-feature bout. Although Garcia, 21, is the favorite in the fight, it’s not a gimme by any stretch of the imagination. Duno, 24, has the power and the fighting style that can give Garcia huge headaches. Last year, Garcia struggled badly in beating Carlos Morales by a 10 round majority decision.
Garcia was given a victory, but the fight looked more like a draw. Morales exposed Garcia in that fight as a fighter that lacks the power, defense and talent to handle a basic pressure fighter. Duno is similar to Morales, and he’s got the ability to beat Garcia. Hopefully this fight doesn’t end in a controversial decision, because Garcia afford another one. If he doesn’t have the ability to match his dreams for him, then that needs to be reflected in the scoring by the judges.
