By Luke Furman

This past Saturday night in Texas, Sergey Kovalev reclaimed the WBO light heavyweight title with a twelve round unanimous decision over Eleider Alvarez.

In their first contest, back in August of 2018, Alvarez dropped Kovalev three times in the seventh round for a knockout victory.

WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol was very impressed by the victory and various tactics that Kovalev used.

Bivol and Kovalev are both under the same promotional banner, Main Events.

But they are aligned with rival outlets. Kovalev is under a multi-fight pact with Top Rank and ESPN, while Bivol recently signed a multi-fight deal with Eddie Hearn and streaming service DAZN.

“Of course [I'd fight him], I want fight for the title. And God willing, the fight (with Kovalev) will take place in the future. I’ll only be happy [if it happens]. But I honestly do not care which champions I box with. I want as many people as possible to want a certain fight, and I could provide it. If they want a fight with Kovalev, I will be glad to do it,” said Bivol to Vasiliy Konov.

"It will be easier to agree with Kovalev in the sense that he never avoided opponents. Kovalev was always ready to go all-in, he didn’t hide from anyone. The man is really open to fighting. He has a belt, and he is ready to defend and unify."

As far as the rematch, Bivol noticed that Kovalev made a lot of adjustments to win the fight.

“The changes were obvious in the fact that Kovalev executed his tactical game plan, he listened to the corner, and did not break away from that. There was a clear desire, he wanted to work more, but he restrained himself somewhere and saved his strength, which he did correctly, and especially for the 12th round it was good," said Bivol.

"I can not say that his changes in technical terms and endurance were very visible. Everything remained the same. Sergey just followed his tactics, and this is the most important thing. It was necessary to be reasonable and follow his game plan. Kovalev already has a rich technical arsenal. Yes, his stamina is not really great, but it’s enough to go the distance and he I did it."

Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org