Part of why I thought Kov might look better here was the rumors that he had prepared better in camp and was better conditioned. It turns out those rumors seem to be true, as he stood up so much better to the few right hands Alvarez was able to get in, and he was giving Alvarez hell in the 12th round.

Have to give a tremendous amount of credit to McGirt, and there are a lot of people who were disrespectful to his ability to train that will have to eat crow. He had the perfect gameplan for Kovalev, who boxed from the outside with his jab, didn't put too much in to his combinations, and was never wasteful with his energy. They basically neutralized Alvarez's offense with volume and the jab, while they also prepared well enough in camp that Kovalev had the conditioning to go all 12. I was also pleasantly surprised with the punch variety from Kov; I don't remember seeing that last time around. Near flawless performance for him.

Assuming legal battles work out for him, Kov should have some great fights available against the other LHW title holders. This win was huge for his legacy, which would have been somewhat tarnished had he been stopped again. Kovalev is a notorious excuse maker with questionable character, but he really did make positive changes this time around.