You probably don’t know who Eleider Alvarez is. If you read this too quickly you’re wondering why Eddie Alvarez is in an article about boxing. To be fair, many casual boxing fans likely aren’t aware that the Canadian by way of Colombia is the reigning WBO light heavyweight (175 lbs) champion after his shocking KO of Sergey Kovalev last August, in what was his first US television main event.
When Alvarez (24-0, 12 KOs) returns to the ring on February 2nd, it’ll be an immediate rematch against Kovalev, who enacted his rematch clause. HBO televised the first fight, but their days of covering live boxing are over, so the ESPN+ streaming service gets the second bout, which marks the first under Alvarez’s new co-promotional deal with Top Rank Boxing.