By Elisinio Castillo
WBO light heavyweight champion Eleider Alvarez feels disrespected and wants to do a lot of damage on Sergey Kovalev when their meet in a rematch on February 2, live on ESPN.
Back in August, Alvarez pulled off a huge upset when he knocked out Kovalev to capture the WBO belt in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
After a close battle, Alvarez dropped Kovalev three times in the seventh round to force the stoppage.
Alvarez is not receiving a lot of attention from his current home country of Canada and his homeland of Colombia.
"Nothing has changed me, the only thing is that now I have less time, because of commitments, but I'm still the same person: I was ready to win that world championship and I thank God that he gave it to me now, in his time, when nothing happened to me. Surely nothing makes me change," Alvarez explains to Estewil Quesada.
Alvarez is looking to make a real statement in the rematch, because he feels Kovalev and his team have been very disrespectful in the aftermath of the fight.
"I did not think Kovalev was going to accept to fight immediately with me. He was hurt, very beaten up. He knows that I am angry at how the [rematch] was announced. It was announced as 'The return of champion Kovalev, what happened in Atlantic City was an accident'. It is a lack of respect. I won very clearly, with no problems. They are trying to downplay my accomplishments and I did not like that," Alvarez said.
"I'm more sure of my conditions [for the rematch]. He knows that I can hit, and he must have fear of my punch and my boxing ability. Now I am the champion and I am going to prepare myself as such, ratifying to be the best. But with the hunger of a challenger, because inside of me there is a challenger who wants to earn more. I'm a 34-year-old mature man who wants to make history as a champion."
