Son of a legend Evan Holyfield wasted no time impressing on his debut as the youngster won in a matter of seconds.
The super welterweight looked sharp. Holyfield put Nick Winstead in danger through the opening exchanges.
In what could have been labelled a premature stoppage, Winstead was waved off in a sharpish manner in a quarter of a minute.
It may well have been purely a move to give Holyfield the green light to dish out more punishment should Winstead have been allowed to continue.
In what was billed as an IBF super welterweight eliminator, Bakhram Murtazaliev moved closer to his shot at glory by defeating Jorge Fortea.
Murtazaliev, now 17-0, scored a unanimous decision with the judges. He took the spoils 120-108, 119-109 and 118-110 after twelve rounds.
EARLY ACTION Cruiserweight Tristan Kalkreuth improved to 3-0 after taking Twon Smith?s best shot in their four-rounder.
Kalkreuth showed some promise despite the third round scare. He brushed aside Smtih via unanimous decision 40-36 twice and 39-37.
In the opening contest, Meiirim Nursultanov defeated Cristian Olivas to pick up the WBC USNBC Middleweight trinket.
Nursultanov was the far busier and classier of the two and can boast a 3-0 record after a dominant win over ten rounds.
Scores carded unanimously for the Oxnard-based Kazakh who took the decision 100-90 across the board.
LIVE SCORECARD WBN will provide a live scorecard as the fight happens, CLICK HERE to view the card updated in real-time.
TV Canelo vs Kovalev is live on DAZN in the United States and Sky Sports in the United Kingdom. Latin American and Canal Space will also broadcast.
RING WALKS DAZN has scheduled the main event not to conflict with UFC 244.
Therefore, the expected ring walk time for Canelo is just before 10pm PT. 1am ET and dependent on the UFC finish.
UK fans can expect to set alarms for 5am in order to make sure they compensate for an earlier timeslot.
