By Tom Donelson / Author, Member Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) … contributor to dmboxing since 2008

Sergey Kovalev recaptured his WBO Light heavyweight title from Eleider Alvarez, who previously knocked the Russian light heavyweight down to win the title.  He managed to revenge only the second person who defeated him and did so in dominating form.  Kovalev began by winning the first two rounds, connecting on combinations while Alvarez slow in starting . 

In the fifth round, Kovalev looked in control but in the sixth, Alvarez got the better of exchanges with his right hand but the rest of the fight, it was Kovalev who looked strong and in the last round, Alvarez looked tired as he took big punches.  The key punch was a big right hand that nailed Kovalev in the sixth round, but Kovalev didn’t budge or appeared hurt. From that point, Kovalev took over the fight and won it easily.

The Compubox numbers tell the whole story as he connected on the double the punches, was consistently more active.  Kovalev landed 213 punches over those twelve rounds, whereas Alvarez landed only 111, less than 10 per round.

I had the fight 58 to 56 going to the second half and Andre Ward of ESPN had it 59 to 55.  The seventh round saw Kovalev pound Alvarez throughout the round and the rest of the fight was not much different.  Kovalev not only took control of the fight, he dominated every aspect of the fight as he jabbed and box effectively while landing solid body punches.  Alvarez simply couldn’t gain any momentum in the second half of the fight as Kovalev moved in with body shots before moving out boxing with effective jabs.  Alvarez rarely connected on a right hand and that was why Kovalev easily won. There was only one round that Alvarez landed more punches and that was eleven.  I gave the third and the sixth round due to Alvarez landed some big rights but those rounds could easily been given to Kovalev. While two judges had 116-112, this fight could have ranged from 117-111 to 120-108 in my view. I simply couldn’t find four rounds to even give Alvarez. 

Oscar Valdez came back from an 11 months respite from the ring and pounded Carmine Tommasone from the first round.  Tommasone landed jabs after jab to keep Valdez and for the first three rounds, Valdez looked rusty and missed many shots but Tommasone simply couldn’t hurt him.  In the fourth, two knockdown, one from a counter right and another from left hook to the body.

Tommasone nose was bleeding due to the hard punching Valdez and it was obvious that Tommasone was not going to have the power to make Valdez fear him.  Valdez simply continue the assault as he sent Tommasone down the sixth before ending it with a right hand uppercut.

As the fight continued, Valdez rust went away and connected with more accurate punches.  Tommasone undefeated record went up in smoke and Valdez won his 25 fight without a loss plus he kept his version, the WBO featherweight title.