NEW JERSEY - In his first shot at a world title, Eleider Alvarez repeatedly rocked WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev with laser-like right hooks on Saturday night at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.

After three years of waiting for his chance, Alvarez took the title and left Kovalev crumpled and bleeding, flooring him three times in a brutal seventh round before referee David Fields stopped the fight.

Alvarez, a 34-year-old from Colombia, ran his record to 24-0 (12 KOs) and sprinted around the ring as Kovalev stumbled back to his corner.

Alvarez got the KO at 2:45 of the seventh as the sellout crowd went wild for boxing's newest champion.

"I knew it was my chance and I wanted to take it right now," said Alvarez, who ended Kovalev's latest reign atop the division.

Alvarez, who once had surgery on his right hand, found the power to blast Kovalev to the canvas early in round seven.

He pounced and pounded away when the Russian beat the 10 count, then knocked him down twice more before Fields waved him off.

"It was a two-punch combo that I have been throwing my whole career and we worked on it in camp," Alvarez said.

"I have always practiced that in camp and we thought it would work in this fight."

Alvarez caught Kovalev, who hasn't been the same since consecutive losses to Andre Ward, with stinging combos. His third knockdown left Kovalev on all fours and he sat motionless on the canvas as the Colombian took a victory leap into his corner.

Alvarez used wins over Canadian contenders Jean Pascal and Lucian Bute to earn a title shot he believed was years in the making.

"I wanted to show that I could stay strong and do good things," Alvarez said.

"His punches were not as hard as they were in the beginning of the fight."

The 35-year-old Kovalev could get a rematch - he was ahead on all three scorecards - but never mounted a comeback after Alvarez's accurate right staggered him early in the seventh.

It was a thrilling ending to boxing's return to the boardwalk for the first time in four years. Kovalev also headlined that Nov 8, 2014 card and beat Bernard Hopkins in a championship bout on the last major night of boxing in Atlantic City.

The sport was flattened as the casinos dried up - five shuttered over that span - before a recent rebirth that included the June opening of the Hard Rock.

The legalization of sports betting in New Jersey should only help the city land better cards.

Kovalev built a following in New Jersey - he fought in three different AC venues in 2014 - and rolled to a 30-0-1 record until his career as derailed by the losses to Ward.

"I lost my mind when I started to get famous," Kovalev said last week.

Now he's lost his title and will need to contemplate his future.

AP