Kovalev.

[VG_Addict]

What are your thoughts on Kovalev?

I think he's a good fighter with solid fundamentals, a great finisher, and of course, scary power.

[Maxsplit]

I think that the age gap between Kovalev and Hopkins looks far less than it actually is.

He must have had a tough paper round!

[Impractical Poster]

What are your thoughts on Kovalev?

I think he's a good fighter with solid fundamentals, a great finisher, and of course, scary power.

I think he's a great fighter with solid fundamentals, a great finisher, and of course, scary power.

[ikorolev]

What are your thoughts on Kovalev?

I think he's a good fighter with solid fundamentals, a great finisher, and of course, scary power.

I agree, but it will be much more clear after Nov 8th.

[PsychoGamer]

Confusing.

Whats up with your uninspired thread titles every time?

Kovalev will knock Hopkins out with bodyshots. You heard it here first!

[Evander]

Physically very strong fighter.
Technically .... The jury is out.

[diddy]

His book gets written one way or another in 5 wks as far as whether he's good or great only. If he wins he won't lose a fight until he faces Ward.

If he loses he still likely won't lose a fight til he faces Ward. Who else is going to beat him? Who
is there besides Ward? Maybe Adonis. Maybe. And thats a stretch for me because I think Kovalev can hurt Adonis badly.

Ward is the closest thing out there to Hopkins. Just better and much younger.

[ikorolev]

His book gets written one way or another in 5 wks as far as whether he's good or great only. If he wins he won't lose a fight until he faces Ward.

If he loses he still likely won't lose a fight til he faces Ward. Who else is going to beat him? Who
is there besides Ward? Maybe Adonis. Maybe. And thats a stretch for me because I think Kovalev can hurt Adonis badly.

Ward is the closest thing out there to Hopkins. Just better and much younger.

I doubt that Ward will ever face him. I have a feeling that Ward will retire without moving up. We will be lucky if we see Ward vs GGG.

[MachoTime]

The Kovalev fights I have seen are short fights. Can't remember Kovalev going more than four rounds. I think if Hopkins can extend Kovalev past four rounds will see. Meaning I can't really tell one way or the other what type of over all fighter Kovalev is or isn't. One thing for certain Kovalev is heavy handed.

[Yes We Can]

Hopkins will make this fight way more than dirty, i think he will foul consistently until he finds away to get out of there.

I expect to see excessive holding, plenty of leading with the head, holding the arms, rabbit punches, going low.... pretty much anything to disrupt Kovalev.

Kovalev looks quite pedestrian , nothing really catches the eye, but everything flows with a lovely rhythm and momentum which makes him incredibly effective. Obviously his power is a fantastic equalizer and i get the impression his chin is sturdy.

This isn't the fight to make him a breakout star, he needs a Bute, Pascal, Dawson or Adonis to give him a good win in a great fight for that.

[Bard of Boxrec]

Will beat everyone. Ward will avoid him, for good reason.

[VG_Addict]

His book gets written one way or another in 5 wks as far as whether he's good or great only. If he wins he won't lose a fight until he faces Ward.

If he loses he still likely won't lose a fight til he faces Ward. Who else is going to beat him? Who
is there besides Ward? Maybe Adonis. Maybe. And thats a stretch for me because I think Kovalev can hurt Adonis badly.

Ward is the closest thing out there to Hopkins. Just better and much younger.

I think Kovalev would KO Stevenson, and the Fonfara fight only strengthened my thoughts.

[crusader]

Sergey Kovalev is a very big 175lb-er, has fast hands, a simple style and obviously carries a lot of punching power. However, statistically-speaking, his punch accuracy is lacking somewhat, but this may be because his opponents are usually focussing on defence and survival.

Kovalev keeps his hands quite low and appears quite relaxed, which means that he probably has the capability to go the distance in a comfortable manner, but he does take shots.

In my mind, his most impressive victory to-date was his demolition of Nathan Cleverly. The Welshman fought the wrong kind of fight by trying to keep the Russian on the back-foot, so he was always in punching range of Kovalev’s bombs.

Stylistically-speaking, Hopkins is the polar opposite of Nathan Cleverly and should be considered as a massive step-up in class.

I personally cannot see Kovalev stopping the veteran, but he may outwork him to earn a unanimous points victory in what will be an ugly but competitive affair.

That being said, I was supremely confident that ‘The Alien’ would have lost his bouts against the likes of Antonio Tarver, Ronald ‘Winky’ Wright, Kelly Pavlik, Jean Pascal and Tavoris Cloud… and he proved me wrong time-and-time again by dominating these guys, so I cannot rule out the possibility of Hopkins defying the odds once more, by adding the Kovalev’s WBO strap to his collection.

Going by CompuBox, since based on another thread you take their stats as credible, I don't think Kovalev's accuracy is an issue. The only recent time when his accuracy may have been poor going by connect percentage was against Agnew, but the latter seemed to be focusing almost entirely on defense and not throwing many punches, which gave Kovalev few openings to exploit.

Overall connect percentages per CompuBox:

Caparello: 52%
White: 45%
Cleverly: 34%
Campillo: 30%
Sillakh: 30%
Agnew: 27%

[victor-romeo]

Kovalev one of the most exciting boxers today. Very athletic fighter, coordinated with good hand and foot speed.
Still improving . Needs to use legs and jab to stay out of clinches with Bernard as to avoid getting cut and tired.
Just needs to hit Bernard on arms shoulders any where and break that 49 year old body down.
Kovalev very determined individual, hungry, with good brain trust ,Don Turner , Jackson, and Duva.
Kovalev speaks English which is huge, makes him marketable for $, and makes him competitive as he gets respect from fans and referee with this attribute.

[crusader]

What do you think of the numbers I listed?

And I don't know why you're talking about me being annoyed because I'm not remotely annoyed; one of the main reasons I come here is for the differing views offered. Maybe you're taking this too seriously?

[crusader]

I agree with you about his opponent's focus on defense possibly reducing his accuracy; when opponents are attempting to survive they are generally focused on getting hit as little as possible and they limit their output, which in turn reduces the openings that Kovalev has. That supports my position he doesn't have accuracy problems though, as it gives a reason why his connect figures, which I think are fine overall, may reflect a lower level of accuracy than he possesses.

When I used laughable I just mean well off the mark, which I think you were in the logic you used to support your argument. That doesn't mean that I am annoyed, and I assure you that I wasn't. It's just a typical aspect of being a regular poster on a forum where differing views are exchanged.

[Badhusker]

I think that the age gap between Kovalev and Hopkins looks far less than it actually is.


LMAO - Is it a far age gap or isn't it? This fight make me laugh mostly at Kovalev fans, because he on paper at least will KO Hopkins. If Kovalev does not KO Hopkins, it will just show he isn't all that. Big time props for Bhop for taking this fight. Betting wise, I would favor Kovalev to win at some kind of stoppage.

[Bobbyptsd]

He's not as good as Ward, better than everyone else.

[Perseus]

Realistically, father time should have shut down Hopkins career as a top boxer AT LEAST 10 years ago.
Probably closer to 15 years, not many middleweights are still on top in their late 30's.

Kovalev can't prove himself to be great in this fight...............proving greatness just is not possible when in the ring with anyone who is 8 weeks or so from being 50-years-old.


Kovalev can either get exposed as extremely overrated or be the guy that finally convinced an old man to retire.
I'm expecting the latter but we'll see.

[WelshDevil]

I think he's the best fighter at 175lbs. Obviously, has KO power but also has excellent timing and range. I can see him stopping Bernard Hopkins.

[Baby Face Finster]

No one at present is beating him at 175.

[ikorolev]

No one at present is beating him at 175.

Nobody has been able to test his chin yet. Kovalev vs Beterbiev would be very interesting.

[Bobbyptsd]

Realistically, father time should have shut down Hopkins career as a top boxer AT LEAST 10 years ago.
Probably closer to 15 years, not many middleweights are still on top in their late 30's.

Kovalev can't prove himself to be great in this fight...............proving greatness just is not possible when in the ring with anyone who is 8 weeks or so from being 50-years-old.


Kovalev can either get exposed as extremely overrated or be the guy that finally convinced an old man to retire.
I'm expecting the latter but we'll see.

I think, as there so often is, that there is nuance to be seen here. I don't think he can prove himself to be great in this one fight, but he can prove an awful lot. Almost 50 or not, punishing Bernard Hopkins into retirement would show that he's easily the best fighter in the division now, at least.

I mean, I don't see anyone else doing it. I've been saying on threads ever since he stopped Dawson, that Stevenson is the real champ at 175, but I'm not sure I believe that anymore. I certainly wouldn't expect him to beat, much less punish, this yet still older version of Hopkins.

Ironically, I think time, of all things, may have caught up with Stevenson, actually.

[ikorolev]

In order for Sergey to be declared great, he needs to beat Hopkins, Stevenson and Beterbiev.

[Perseus]

Realistically, father time should have shut down Hopkins career as a top boxer AT LEAST 10 years ago.
Probably closer to 15 years, not many middleweights are still on top in their late 30's.

Kovalev can't prove himself to be great in this fight...............proving greatness just is not possible when in the ring with anyone who is 8 weeks or so from being 50-years-old.


Kovalev can either get exposed as extremely overrated or be the guy that finally convinced an old man to retire.
I'm expecting the latter but we'll see.

I think, as there so often is, that there is nuance to be seen here. I don't think he can prove himself to be great in this one fight, but he can prove an awful lot. Almost 50 or not, punishing Bernard Hopkins into retirement would show that he's easily the best fighter in the division now, at least.

I mean, I don't see anyone else doing it. I've been saying on threads ever since he stopped Dawson, that Stevenson is the real champ at 175, but I'm not sure I believe that anymore. I certainly wouldn't expect him to beat, much less punish, this yet still older version of Hopkins.

Ironically, I think time, of all things, may have caught up with Stevenson, actually.

How many others got to fight him shortly before his half-century birthday?

Nothing ironic about time catching up to Stevenson at his age it should be expected. If it was common for boxers to have the kind of result Hopkins has recorded in his late 30's to late 40's nobody would talk about his age.