Manila Standard Digital
posted October 28, 2019 at 06:38 pm
MGM GRAND — a Mexican-dominant crowd who anticipated the arrival of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez motivated the Russian WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev for their bout this coming November 2nd.
Booed and cheered against, Kovalev was all smiles as he took the stage during his grand arrival.
“This motivates me, I want to disappoint a lot of people,” the 36 years old champ said.
The Russian came out as an underdog against the challenger, who jumped from middleweight to light heavyweight despite spending his entire career in the division.
And with the news stressing more about Canelo making history, Kovalev is set to make his mark by halting Alvarez’s dream of becoming the first Mexican boxer to win four titles in different weight classes.
“I’m ready to win against Canelo. For my glory, for my history,” he said.
Kovalev as well is expected to fight smarter comes fight night. Known for his knockout ability, the ‘Krusher’ with his new team beside him is trying to change their tactics as they want him to last up to the 12th round.
Believing that he has more to lose than Canelo in the fight, Kovalev vows to turn the ‘boos’ into ‘ooohs’ on Saturday night.
Nonetheless, he lauded Canelo for going up the 175 pounds, a division he said he wanted to make known.
“I respect his steps (for going up in light heavyweight) and his risks, you know. This is boxing only real men can prove to themselves that they’re real fighters and for Canelo, it is (he proved it).”