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Canelo Alvarez: I felt Kovalev’s power, but was able to deal with it

Canelo Alvarez discusses his big win over Sergey Kovalev at the post-fight presser.

Canelo Alvarez’s Saturday night knockout win over Sergey Kovalev made him a four-division champion, as he added the WBO light heavyweight title to his growing collection.

Alvarez (53-1-2, 36 KO) spoke briefly at the post-fight press conference about the fight and his future plans.

On the win: “We’re obviously very happy with the results. We are four-division titleholders now. It was a hard fight, harder than we fought, but we are here. I’m very grateful to all.”

On Kovalev’s power: “He’s a much larger fighter than I am, so I did feel his power, but I was able to deal with it.”

On the game plan: “We had to have patience. We knew we had to have patience. It went further than we thought, but in the 11th round, Eddy sent to close it out, and that’s what we did.”

On his pound-for-pound ranking: “I really don’t care if they believe I’m the best pound-for-pound. What I care about is to show people who I am and to create history.”

On what’s next: “We want to continue making history. Now I have to figure out what Eddy’s going to come up with, what crazy idea he comes up with. But we are ready for anything.”

On possibly going back to 160: “It will probably be very difficult. It’s always been difficult for me to lose weight, but we must continue creating history, and I can do it.”

On not going to the body as much as expected: “That was the intention, but once you’re there, other strategies must be executed. It was hard to get to his body. It was unpredictable. It was to the head that we won. ... We tried to go to the body, but it was very difficult for me to get to the body. We practiced many other strategies, and because of that, we were able to do what we did.”

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