By Ian S Palmer
Former WBO Light Heavyweight Champion Eleider Alvarez of Colombia will be taking on Michael Seals of Mobile, Alabama at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino this Saturday, January 18th. The 10-round bout for the vacant WBC Continental Americas Light Heavyweight Belt can be seen live in America on ESPN and ESPN Deportes while fans in Canada can catch the action on TSN 3. Alvarez last fought in February when he lost his title to Sergey Kovalev via unanimous decision in a rematch. Alvarez had stopped Kovalev in the seventh round six months earlier to win the WBO Belt. Seals last fought in October when he stopped Elio Trosch in 98 seconds.
The 35-year-old Alvarez fights out of Montreal, Canada Alvarez turned pro in 2009 and has 173 rounds of experience under his belt. He’ll enter the ring with a record of 24-1 with 12 Kos. He’s also captured the WBO-NABO, WBA-NABA, WBC Silver, and IBA Light Heavyweight Titles along the way. Alvarez also has victories over Jean Pascal, Lucian Bute, Robert Berridge, Isaac Chilemba, Ryno Liebenberg, Andrew Gardner, Edison Miranda, Alexander Johnson, Anatoliy Dudchenko and Isidro Ranon Prieto.
Alvarez stands 6-feet tall and has a reach of 76. He isn’t really known as a one-punch KO artist and his current knockout ratio is 48 per cent. He’s a solid pro with a good chin and is somewhat underrated especially considering the opposition hes faced and defeated so far as a pro. He possesses good skills but isn’t the most exciting light heavyweight out there but is still a legitimate top-10 contender even at his somewhat advanced age.
Alvarez enjoyed an extensive amateur career and represented Colombia at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. He won gold at the 2007 and 2008 Pan America Games and is 1-1 with a Ko in world championship bouts while going 3-1 with 2 Ko’s against former or current world champions. (Bute, Pascal and Kovalev).
Seals is even older than Alvarez as he enters the ring at the age of 37. He owns an impressive mark of 24-2 with with 18 Kos and has been stopped once. He was halted in the third round by Edwin Rodriguez in 2015 after dropping Rodriguez twice in the first round. He was then disqualified in the second round against Michael Gbenga in 2018 for him him while he was down. Seals turned pro in 2008 and has fought just 58 rounds since in his 24 fights.
He’s never gone past six rounds and he has 13 first-round stoppages, three in the second round, one in the third and one in the fifth round. Seals is obviously a fast starter and has good power with a current knockout ratio of 69.2 per cent. He’s also bigger than Alvarez as he’s 6-feet-3-inches tall with an 80-inch reach. This gives Seals three inches in height and four inches in reach on Alvarez.
Seals is always well prepared and comes to fight each time out but he’s stepping up in class against Alvarez this weekend as his biggest wins have been against the likes of Michael Shanks, William Johnson, Dennis Sharpe, Steve Walker, Michael Davis, Joseph Harris, Adam Collins and Dione Craig. However, he did manage to stop Byron Mitchell in the first round for the vacant WBC-USNBC Cruiserweight Crown in December of 2012. In all, just 11 of Seals’ 26opponents have had winning records.
Prediction…
Seals won’t be an easy fight for Alvarez and Alvarez needs to be wary of his power and fast starts. As long as Alvarez can get out of the first few rounds I expect him to beat Seals in a relatively close contest.
