How good is/has been Sergey Kovalev?

[Terry Dooley]

lol you can easily find plenty of stuff to like people saying hopkins would school him (an espn media poll even had hopkins favoured 13-12), or hed hardly win a round vs ward (ward was fav both fights too), or even clev would beat him. he actually surpassed many expectations

nice thread bumping now, grow the f@ck up

are you a black or mexican guy offended by his racism? maybe then i can understand!

Did many people really think Hopkins had a chance against Kovalev? I thought the consensus - quite rightly - was that Kovalev was gonna destroy him?

majority opinion was that kovalev would win, but i mustve seen 100+ predictions of hopkins winning (see below), and even schooling him. like i said an espn media poll of 'experts' had hopkins favoured 13-12, boxing news picked hopkins, terry dooley picked hopkins, danny flexen, roy jones etc, it was hardly some fringe opinion

and sure, there are extreme assertions out there of what kov would do, but you can find almost any opinion on a forum. btw, i dont mean to 'call out' anyone with these quotes, but just to show that it was hardly just super fringe opinion at the time that hopkins would win or have a good shot, posts like these were all over other forums and i had no problem finding them here too.

this is all just from a few threads that came up right away on the british, so not including all the picks hopkins got from americans

The pot shot counters will keep Kovalev honest. I'm expecting a schooling here.

Good luck and I hope you win but I really think Hopkins is going to pull off the "shock"

See thefootage ofthe overhand right that dropped Krusher? He is gonna them all night long, like tarver did.
Hopkins ud.

I think Hopkins is going to school him, old man this Russian big time.

Hopkins will take him into the deep water and drown him.

Hopkins isn't KOing anybody. He's said it before he tries for the KO and it doesn't come. That's why he's the Alien now rather than the executioner, because he just doesn't stop guys anymore.

Hopkins UD.

I'm picking Hopkins. Power punchers he can deal with. It's industry he hates.

Hopkins on points for me.Plodding forward throwing bombs with total disregard for your opponent is in my opinion wild and will ultimately be his downfall.

I've a feeling Hopkins may pull it off here.

Watched a bit of Kovalev, think he's absolutely made for Hopkins to systematically break down. Hype job for me until he proves otherwise.

Styles - and it's hard to pick against Hopkins.

BHop UD

Hopkins MD

Hopkins UD

Hopkins SD

BHop UD

Hopkins SD

BHop SD

I'm picking Hopkins. Power punchers he can deal with. It's industry he hates.

I've got to agree with you.
It'll be rough and ragged but Hopkins has the knowledge and no-how to negate Kovalev's power for 12 rounds.

if Kov can be put on his ass then Hopkins is definitely sneaky enough to do that on route to a points victory. It will be close mind as Kovalev will try until the last second of the fight.

i wouldnt be too surprised that Hopkins wins on points , he boxes on the back foot goes on little walks and pot shots with rights

if kovalev doesnt catch him clean then does he have the stamina output to outwork hopkins ???

Really Kovalev should nail him but Hopkins isnt a normal Boxer.

i had never saw Shumonev before but Hopkins made him look extremley Clueless,

On the fence. He should lose in theory but Hopkins can negate any man's power and work rate at any age

I'd never write Hopkins off against anyone and to say he has no chance is just foolish. Kovalev is a beast without question but he's been in with no-one anywhere near the calibre of Hopkins. I make this a 50-50 fight and so will be backing Hopkins at 5/2. I know it was only a flash knockdown but Kovalev being caught in his last fight doesn't exactly fill me with confidence as to his chances. No way he stops Hopkins either. He only wins by out working him.

Hopkins has a way of taking other fighters game away from them. I think Kovalev is the favourite and should be, but Hopkins is a master at doing it ugly and spoiling the other fighters tactics. I can definitely see Hopkins winning an ugly decision if he manages to get through the first few rounds without taking a beating.

Yeah, I was way off going for Hopkins in that one, but I went all in on Ward and especially for the rematch. The Twitter meltdown from Kovalev fans was hilarious after Ward 2. I'd always pick against him in a dog fight against someone mentally tough and able to match him physically. He was overrated, now he'll probably be underrated in some quarters. Ah well, I don't care for him much and I'm just glad Ward stopped him second time around.

[Blodhemn]

As far as Hopkins vs Kovalev goes, I did think Hopkins would win.

Given what Ward did to Kovalev, I don't think anyone can disagree that prime Hopkins beats him.

I saw those flaws in Kovalev and thought that Hopkins, who had in fact declined more than I realized would win. In hindsight, Hopkins was being flattered by fairly convincing wins over lower level competition in Cloud, Murat and Shumenov. The Hopkins who beat Pavlik in 2008 schools Kovalev for me.

Ah, you were dead wrong but somehow manage to convince yourself that you were right and in the end Hopkins beats Kovalev emphatically. The 360 is complete.

[TheLeprechaun]

As far as Hopkins vs Kovalev goes, I did think Hopkins would win.

Given what Ward did to Kovalev, I don't think anyone can disagree that prime Hopkins beats him.

I saw those flaws in Kovalev and thought that Hopkins, who had in fact declined more than I realized would win. In hindsight, Hopkins was being flattered by fairly convincing wins over lower level competition in Cloud, Murat and Shumenov. The Hopkins who beat Pavlik in 2008 schools Kovalev for me.

Ah, you were dead wrong but somehow manage to convince yourself that you were right and in the end Hopkins beats Kovalev emphatically. The 360 is complete.

World class post. Well done.

[Ilya Muromets]

I wanna introduce this topic: how good is Kovalev? I watch his record and i find that he beat good opponent, but not a real champion. Everyone, not so long ago, thought that he was the number one of his division. Now the things are so much different. What do you think about that?

He beat Ward twice, phony crooked Mafia Vegas judges and referees notwithstanding. most people in the know agree that he won the first Ward fight on points, and Ward should have been disqualified for repeated low blows in the second.

Yeah, i know this has been hashed and rehashed a hundred times already, but in boxing they commit their crimes and then it's like it's written in stone. Well not just boxing unfortunately. Boxing is the least of it.

[boxing_rocks]

Kovalev was good, but he has always had limitations like barely using hooks and uppercuts, poor inside fighting, losing balance when missing. Funny that he worked on hooks before Alvarez fight and tried to use them much more than usual.

As Virgil Hunter mentioned, Kovalev's big mistake was his trainer choices.

[victor-romeo]

Kovalev was good, but he has always had limitations like barely using hooks and uppercuts, poor inside fighting, losing balance when missing. Funny that he worked on hooks before Alvarez fight and tried to use them much more than usual.

As Virgil Hunter mentioned, Kovalev's big mistake was his trainer choices.

Yea he had limitations but on his strengths he went very far , not losing a fight for like 7 years, knocking down and beating Andre Ward in their first fight in my eyes and losing 114-113 on the judges card of that fight so yea had weaknesses, but he was a hell of a fighter. and I would say better than good, but not a great like Hagler, Leonard , Duran.

How good he was is testified to by the lengths of threads that are posted about him here... For whatever reason people are interested in him, either in hating him or rooting for him.

[geronimo]

I wanna introduce this topic: how good is Kovalev? I watch his record and i find that he beat good opponent, but not a real champion. Everyone, not so long ago, thought that he was the number one of his division. Now the things are so much different. What do you think about that?

He beat Ward twice, phony crooked Mafia Vegas judges and referees notwithstanding. most people in the know agree that he won the first Ward fight on points, and Ward should have been disqualified for repeated low blows in the second.

Yeah, i know this has been hashed and rehashed a hundred times already, but in boxing they commit their crimes and then it's like it's written in stone. Well not just boxing unfortunately. Boxing is the least of it.

For me Ward won the First match, by one point, just like the judges score. In the second match, we can argue about the low blows, but Kovalev was hurt badly before the KO.

[Syntax Error]

Tremendous ability & power, but dreadful stamina.

He's fortunate his power is huge, because if it wasn't, his stamina would have let him down a long time ago.

[jamamb]

I wanna introduce this topic: how good is Kovalev? I watch his record and i find that he beat good opponent, but not a real champion. Everyone, not so long ago, thought that he was the number one of his division. Now the things are so much different. What do you think about that?

He beat Ward twice, phony crooked Mafia Vegas judges and referees notwithstanding. most people in the know agree that he won the first Ward fight on points, and Ward should have been disqualified for repeated low blows in the second.

Yeah, i know this has been hashed and rehashed a hundred times already, but in boxing they commit their crimes and then it's like it's written in stone. Well not just boxing unfortunately. Boxing is the least of it.

For me Ward won the First match, by one point, just like the judges score. In the second match, we can argue about the low blows, but Kovalev was hurt badly before the KO.

first fight was super close, couldve gone either way, kov by 1 for me, showed kov could be highly competitive vs an elite hof level boxer, he was defo a good world class fighter though flawed

[boxing_rocks]

Great God given talent but partially wasted due to personality issues causing not listening to trainers, not training hard enough. Strong rumors about alcohol abuse.

[Enlightened-One]

Great God given talent but partially wasted due to personality issues causing not listening to trainers, not training hard enough. Strong rumors about alcohol abuse.

100% agree with this!