Revenge for the Krusher (plus Undercard Results)

Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev regained the WBO light heavyweight title, avenging his loss to Eleider Alvarez with a clear-cut 12 round unanimous decision. The scores were 120-108 and 116-112 twice.

Working for the first time with trainer Buddy McGirt, Kovalev (33-3-1) controlled the fight with his jab. His best round may have been the 12^th. It was the first professional loss for Alvarez (24-1), a Montreal-based Columbian.

After the bout, the 35-year-old Kovalev expressed an interest in unifying the titles. The other belts are held by two fellow Russians (Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev) and a Ukrainian, Oleksandr Gvozdyk, who has the same management team.

Teofimo Lopez (12-0, 10 KOs) continued his impressive run through the 135-pound division with a brutal seventh round stoppage of former world title challenger Diego Magdaleno who entered the contest with a record of 31-2.

Also, WBO world featherweight champion Oscar Valdez (25-0, 20 KOs) dominated and eventually stopped Italy’s Carmine Tommasone (19-1) . The end came in the seventh round when Valdez dropped his foe with a short right uppercut. At that juncture, Timmasone was bleeding from his mouth, had a welt under his right eye, and had already visited the canvas three times. Although only a few seconds had elapsed in the round, referee Mark Nelson wisely stepped in prevented Tommasone from taking more punishment.

UNDERCARD

The undercard had an international flavor with five fighters from the former Soviet Union, three of whom — junior middleweight Bakhran Murtazaliev from Russia, middleweight Janibek Alimkhanuly from Kazakhstan, and welterweight Enriko Gogohia from the Republic of Georgia — represented Egis Klimas’s California fight factory.

Murtazaliev kicked off the undercard portion of the show. He advanced to 15-0 (12 KOs) with a ninth round stoppage of 38-year-old Connecticut journeyman Elvin Ayala (29-13-1). Murtazaliev hurt Ayala in the eighth round with a left hook and went for the kill in the next stanza, flooring Ayala with a combination and then pounding him against the ropes before the referee intervened.

Alimkhanuly (5-0, 2 KOs) battered Puerto Rico’s Steven Martinez en route to a fifth round stoppage. Martinez’s corner tossed in the towel at the 0.25 mark of round five. Martinez (18-5) hadn’t previously been stopped.

In a swing bout, Gogokhia (11-0, 5 KOs) stopped Brazil’s Vitor Jones Freitas in the third round.

In a 10-round contest in the 154-pound weight class, Patrick Day won his sixth straight and improved to 17-2-1 with a unanimous decision over previously undefeated but unexceptional Ismail Iliev (11-1-1). Day, from the Long Island town of Freeport, was an alternate to Errol Spence on the 2012 U.S. Olympic team.

Albuquerque restaurant worker Jason Sanchez 14-0 (7 KOs) actually improved on his impressive showing in his last fight with a second round stoppage of Mexico’s Daniel Olea (13-7-2). Sanchez rattled Olea in the opening round and then cranked up the juice in the next stanza, ending the contest with a straight right hand that knocked Olea to knees. He beat the count, but his legs were rubbery and the fight was stopped. In his previous bout, Sanchez, a featherweight, upset Top Rank signee Jean Carlos Rivera in Panama City.

In the first of three title fights, Ghana’s Richard Commey won the vacant IBF world lightweight title and earned an April date with Vasiliy Lomachenko with a second round stoppage of overmatched Isa Chaniev (13-2). Commey staggered his Russian adversary in the first round and then closed the show in round two after decking Chaniev with a left hook. Commey improved to 28-2 with his 25th knockout. Both of his losses came via split decision. Chaniev had no business being in the same ring with Commey, let alone in a fight sanctioned for a world title.

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