Hall of Fame analyst Larry Merchant was in Las Vegas on November 2nd for Canelo Alvarez's 11th round knockout victory over Sergey Kovalev. With the victory Alvarez captured the WBO light heavyweight title and became a champion in a 4th weight class.
While Kovalev is past his prime at 36 years old, he still packs a powerful punch and looked sharp in out boxing Eleider Alvarez earlier this year in their rematch. Merchant believes that while Kovalev wasn't the best light heavyweight available, he definitely was the most marketable.
"I think (the victory in a 4th weight class) adds something and in the public mind - particularly in the casual fan's mind - everybody is going to read if they haven't seen that he beat the light heavyweight champion. I doubt there are very many people who could name any of the other light heavyweight champions or belt holders or whatever you want to call them. So he beat the best known light heavyweight at the moment. Hey that is something," Merchant explained.
Artur Beterbiev holds the WBC and IBF light heavyweight titles while Dmitry Bivol has the WBA title. Both fighters are a lot fresher than Kovalev and Merchant believes that Alvarez should move back down in weight.
"I don't know. I think what we saw tonight is that he is vulnerable against a bigger guy - a bigger, younger guy. I don't know enough about the other light heavyweights to have a really serious opinion but it would be a hard fight. And it is not like any of those fighters are big attractions at 175," Merchant told BoxingScene.com.
After the fight Canelo, who also holds titles at middleweight and super middleweight, was non committal about what weight class we will campaign at.
He did however state that it would be difficult to get back down to the 160 pound middleweight limit and most pundits expect him to settle in at 168 pounds which is the weight class that Merchant feels he is best suited for.
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