The fighters had their first face-off Wednesday at an introductory press conference in Los Angeles to formally announce the fight. But it isn't the first time Alvarez and Kovalev have been in each other's presence — last week, Kovalev shared a picture on Instagram of them of training in 2012 at Big Bear in California. 

While remembering the time he spent with Kovalev, Alvarez (52-1-2, 35 KOs) quickly shifted to a serious tone Wednesday when he reflected on his continued quest to make history. Alvarez is trying to become only the fourth Mexican fighter (along with Erik Morales, Jorge Arce and Juan Manuel Marquez) to win world titles in four different weight classes.

"I’m very motivated here," Alvarez said through an interpreter. "It’s an honor to meet and share the ring with a fighter like Kovalev who I met in 2012. He used to be a fighter of four, six-round fighter and now we are about to share the ring and make history here."

By the time Kovalev (34-3-1) steps inside the ring, it will only be 10 weeks since he scored an 11th round knockout over Anthony Yarde in his native Russia. After back-to-back losses against Andre Ward in 2016 and 2017 and then an upset knockout loss to Eleider Alvarez in August 2018, the consensus among boxing pundits was that Kovalev's better days were behind him.

Now with back-to-back wins, the three-time light heavyweight champion gets the opportunity to overcome those setbacks and score the biggest win of his career on the sport's grandest stage.

"I think this is really a big test for me in my boxing career because (Canelo) is one of the best fighters in the world in boxing right now," Kovalev said.

The 29-year-old Alvarez has faced the best boxing has to offer in Floyd Mayweather, Jr., Gennadiy Golovkin, Miguel Cotto and Daniel Jacobs. In the eyes of Alvarez, who's the current unified middleweight and the WBA (regular) super middleweight champion, Kovalev is the biggest test of his stellar career.

"I know it’s going to be the most difficult fight of my career. I’m aware it’s going to be a very difficult fight."

MORE: Full press conference highlights | Kovalev interview