BHop vs Kovalev Discussion

[ikorolev]

No, Hopkins was no worse yesterday than he was 4 years ago. He was just fighting a boxer who was better in too many aspects.

You can think that.. but logic argues against what you are saying.

It didn't argue that 24 hours ago for most of boxrec posters and boxing writers. Bernard's physique and reflexes were as good yesterday as they were 4 years ago.

[JCS]

No, Hopkins was no worse yesterday than he was 4 years ago. He was just fighting a boxer who was better in too many aspects.

You can think that.. but logic argues against what you are saying.

It didn't argue that 24 hours ago for most of boxrec posters and boxing writers. Bernard's physique and reflexes were as good yesterday as they were 4 years ago.

No one ever said he'd be the same at 49 as he was at 45. I think those predicting victory believed he would get there by using his guile more so than his physical attributes.

To say that he was definitively the same as 4 years ago is nearly impossible. A male athlete's peak for physicality is approx age 30.. the more removed from that age, the further removed from that prime.

[NateJR]

No, Hopkins was no worse yesterday than he was 4 years ago. He was just fighting a boxer who was better in too many aspects.

You can think that.. but logic argues against what you are saying.

ikorolev will defend his man crush at any cost and give him full credit for beating Hopkins in his prime.

[ikorolev]

No, Hopkins was no worse yesterday than he was 4 years ago. He was just fighting a boxer who was better in too many aspects.

You can think that.. but logic argues against what you are saying.

ikorolev will defend his man crush at any cost and give him full credit for beating Hopkins in his prime.

Hopkins hasn't been close to his prime for at least 4 years. Nothing happened yesterday suddenly making him worse except facing a superior fighter. Of course, he is not exactly the same as he was 4 years ago, but he he hasn't had any serious slide, and he definitely is the same fighter who beat Shumenov a couple months ago.

[JeanClaude Van Damme]

Hopkins has some chin.
No one has ever beat Hopkins like that. Hopkins actually landed some decent shoots throughout, Kovalev just never let him settle into his rhythm

Roy Jones Jr did it with one hand.

[observer1]

You can think that.. but logic argues against what you are saying.

ikorolev will defend his man crush at any cost and give him full credit for beating Hopkins in his prime.

Hopkins hasn't been close to his prime for at least 4 years. Nothing happened yesterday suddenly making him worse except facing a superior fighter. Of course, he is not exactly the same as he was 4 years ago, but he he hasn't had any serious slide, and he definitely is the same fighter who beat Shumenov a couple months ago.[/quote]

Point is, he is 49 years old.

There is only one way to beat Hopkins, that is through being bigger and faster. As good as BHop is, he get's slower each fight.

He got hit clean by Pascal, Tavoris, Murat and Shumenov more progressively each fight. If that is not a serious slide, then you're deluded. Kovalev did well - don't tarnish this win by being a deluded fanboy.

[Freedom2013]

If Hopkins was still "great" he would not have been dominated by Chad Dawson.

Big difference between Kovalev's dominate decision win 120-107 and Dawson's close MD win.

Hopkins had never been dominated before.

[Perseus]

If Hopkins was still "great" he would not have been dominated by Chad Dawson.

Big difference between Kovalev's dominate decision win 120-107 and Dawson's close MD win.

Hopkins had never been dominated before.

Dawson beat him wide an incompetent judge scored it a draw.
The difference was roughly 3 rounds and power.
Hopkins won 3 rounds or so from Dawson while winning none from Krusher and Dawson isn't a big puncher while Kovalev is.

[JCS]

Hopkins supposedly had a bum shoulder in the 2nd Dawson fight... from the tackle in the 1st. Still, I thought he won 4 rounds. Not saying he won the fight, but Dawson didn't dominate him.

[ikorolev]

Point is, he is 49 years old.

There is only one way to beat Hopkins, that is through being bigger and faster. As good as BHop is, he get's slower each fight.

He got hit clean by Pascal, Tavoris, Murat and Shumenov more progressively each fight. If that is not a serious slide, then you're deluded. Kovalev did well - don't tarnish this win by being a deluded fanboy.

He was trying to fight differently, in a more crowd pleasing way, against Murat and Shumenov. He tried to KO them. When he is in his shell, he is extremely hard to land on.

[crusader]

He got hit clean by Pascal, Tavoris, Murat and Shumenov more progressively each fight. If that is not a serious slide, then you're deluded. Kovalev did well - don't tarnish this win by being a deluded fanboy.

Really?

I'd say he definitely got hit cleanly the least by Shumenov, then the next least by Cloud. I don't think Hop was any worse than he was when he schooled Shumenov a few months ago.

I think Kovalev, who is much better than the likes of Shumenov, Cloud, and Murat, was the reason why Hopkins didn't win a round despite recently schooling a titlist. Some people having him down as nothing more than a crude guy with power who was going to be totally befuddled was ridiculous.

[crusader]

No, Hopkins was no worse yesterday than he was 4 years ago. He was just fighting a boxer who was better in too many aspects.

You can think that.. but logic argues against what you are saying.

He may not be as good as he was then, but I don't think it's hard to believe that the Hopkins who schooled Shumenov a few months ago isn't significantly worse than he was when he beat Pascal.

[lefty]

No, Hopkins was no worse yesterday than he was 4 years ago. He was just fighting a boxer who was better in too many aspects.

You can think that.. but logic argues against what you are saying.

He may not be as good as he was then, but I don't think it's hard to believe that the Hopkins who schooled Shumenov a few months ago isn't significantly worse than he was when he beat Pascal.

Hopkins was pretty bad though aswell. Dont get me wrong, Kovalev was main reason for that but I actually think Capparello had more moments of success against Kovalev (ignoring the knockdown) than Hopkins. Obviously defensively he was nowhere near as good or durable as Bernard but offensively I thought he did better. Hopkins barely let his hands go for the entire fight. It almost seemed like he wanted to go the full 12 versus actually win the fight.

[JCS]

No, Hopkins was no worse yesterday than he was 4 years ago. He was just fighting a boxer who was better in too many aspects.

You can think that.. but logic argues against what you are saying.

He may not be as good as he was then, but I don't think it's hard to believe that the Hopkins who schooled Shumenov a few months ago isn't significantly worse than he was when he beat Pascal.

4 years ago Hopkins doesn't get knocked down in the 1st... IMO.

[crusader]

Given that so many, including several posters in this thread, thought Hopkins would outbox and befuddle Kovalev, I doubt that Hopkins lacked confidence to the point where he entered the fight just looking to survive rather than win. The line that 'father time finally caught up with him' is BS in my view, as it apparently hadn't caught up with him a few months ago when he outclassed and embarrassed a top ten opponent in Shumenov.

The fact is that Hopkins is largely a counter puncher these days, and he was facing a technically proficient fighter with very good power. The KD in round one came from a Kovalev right hand when Hopkins was throwing, and that may've contributed to Bernard's reluctance to throw. Moreover, Hopkins stated post fight that Kovalev's well-timed steps back made it hard to counter, as the latter would be out of range before Hopkins could attack with a counter. None of Hopkins' recent opponents had Kovalev's power or technical ability, I don't think people should be screaming father time as if it was the causal factor when Hopkins was humiliating Shumenov a few months ago.

To me it seems like a lot of people who fooled themselves into thinking that Kovalev was nothing but a crude slugger who would be clueless against Hopkins are trying to rationalize by assuming that Hopkins regressed from his last fight instead of focusing on Kovalev's abilities.

[ikorolev]

Just wait. LHW division will be called very shallow soon. Anything to not accept that a boxer not proficient in English or at least in Spanish can be THAT good.

[Ian1973]

Just wait. LHW division will be called very shallow soon. Anything to not accept that a boxer not proficient in English or at least in Spanish can be THAT good.

It's already started. Hopkins is "shot" now, according to (some of) the same people who tipped Hopkins to win the fight twenty four hours ago.

[Blodhemn]

I guess Pavlik 2.0 shipped standard with an upgraded boxing module. Hopkins got schooled in this rematch.

[KBB]

Hopkins was finally made to look old in the ring, his timing was off although he landed a few good shots but never hurt Kova, he looked slow and lethargic (mostly due to Kovalev). From the outset with the knockdown I knew that it wasn't going to go Bernard's way, he fell too far behind and couldn't figure out how to make Sergey get into wild swinging exchanges where he'd be able to time him with sharp counters.

Kovalev hit him with some very hard shots and it was surprising to see BHop take them very well even mocking Sergey's hardest shots at some point, the 12th round was great for Kovalev but it didn't appear that Hopkins was hurting from those shots as he was clearly on his feet and even raised his hand at the end of the round (not sure why because it was clear he lost).

Great fight for Kovalev, so the only thing next for him should be Stevenson and hopefully we can finally get a fully unified boxing champ in this division, as a boxing fan I'm truly happy that we are on the path to getting one true champ to represent the entire division.

It's been too long, best wishes to Sergey Kovalev, he is a likeable person from what I saw in the 24/7 series.