BoxRec

Kovalev was too big, too strong and too good for Hopkins tonight. Kovalev proved a lot tonight, he does have some nice boxing skills, has patience and can fight a disciplined fight. Kovalev is the best fighter at 175 right now and there's nothing more I'd like to see than Kovalev vs. Stevenson for the final unification fight. (I got Kovalev by KO6 if that fight happens)

Big, big props to Hopkins. I know a lot of people here have disrespected Hopkins on many occasions. But this 49 year old man just went 12 rounds with one of the most dangerous guys in the sport. I hope Hopkins finally hangs them up and calls it a career, but this man deserves nothing but the utmost respect from anyone who calls themselves a boxing fan.

crusader wrote:

Any comments he's made have always been to promote a fight and rile up his opponent.

Maybe, but how do you know? It seems to me like a fighter could say virtually anything and it could be interpreted this way.

True. I hate racist/daft statements from athletes/celebs.

However Hopkins has never come across ignorant i.e Like Mayweather. BHop's entire entourage (Goldenboy), management etc. are all White people. He's even gone and apologized right after the fight for it and not tried to defend it like others would have.

I agree there is no need for it, however if someone has a reputation of pulling stunts like this and apologizing - we should be used to it.

NateJR wrote:Kovalev was too big, too strong and too good for Hopkins tonight. Kovalev proved a lot tonight, he does have some nice boxing skills, has patience and can fight a disciplined fight. Kovalev is the best fighter at 175 right now and there's nothing more I'd like to see than Kovalev vs. Stevenson for the final unification fight. (I got Kovalev by KO6 if that fight happens)

Big, big props to Hopkins. I know a lot of people here have disrespected Hopkins on many occasions. But this 49 year old man just went 12 rounds with one of the most dangerous guys in the sport. I hope Hopkins finally hangs them up and calls it a career, but this man deserves nothing but the utmost respect from anyone who calls themselves a boxing fan.

Yes, Bernard has HUGE balls. He did not surrender even though I think that his corner should have stopped the fight, and the ref had to stop the fight in 12th.

Hope there will be no negative effects.

ikorolev wrote:

lefty wrote:

Boxing Writer wrote:Kovalev vs Beterbiev will be a HUGE fight two years from now, considering their styles and bad blood between them from the amateurs days.

Was there bad blood between them in the amateurs then? Ps i can see that fight happening a lot sooner than 2 years time if it happens.

They fought once in a Russian semi-final before Olympics, and Kovalev thinks that he was robbed. Beterbiev accepts that he didn't have a good fight, because he was already thinking about the final deciding who goes to Olympics.

Kovalev and Beterbiev were sparring partners in many camps of the Russian team.

That would be a fun fight to watch! I'd probably favour Kovalev on what i've seen so far.

I'm high on Beterbiev but I think he's being somewhat overrated. I'd love to see him vs Alvarez with the winner facing Kov.

ikorolev wrote:

NateJR wrote:Kovalev was too big, too strong and too good for Hopkins tonight. Kovalev proved a lot tonight, he does have some nice boxing skills, has patience and can fight a disciplined fight. Kovalev is the best fighter at 175 right now and there's nothing more I'd like to see than Kovalev vs. Stevenson for the final unification fight. (I got Kovalev by KO6 if that fight happens)

Big, big props to Hopkins. I know a lot of people here have disrespected Hopkins on many occasions. But this 49 year old man just went 12 rounds with one of the most dangerous guys in the sport. I hope Hopkins finally hangs them up and calls it a career, but this man deserves nothing but the utmost respect from anyone who calls themselves a boxing fan.

Yes, Bernard has HUGE balls. He did not surrender even though I think that his corner should have stopped the fight, and the ref had to stop the fight in 12th.

Hope there will be no negative effects.

I thought the ref was shocking in that last round. I'm all for giving fighters every chance and i hate early stoppages but bloody hell Hopkins was miles behind on the cards and getting battered around the ring. another 30 seconds and i dread to think what could've happened. The ref should've stopped the fight, Hopkins' health is more important than his pride of hearing the final bell.

observer1 wrote:

crusader wrote:

Any comments he's made have always been to promote a fight and rile up his opponent.

Maybe, but how do you know? It seems to me like a fighter could say virtually anything and it could be interpreted this way.

True. I hate racist/daft statements from athletes/celebs.

However Hopkins has never come across ignorant i.e Like Mayweather. BHop's entire entourage (Goldenboy), management etc. are all White people. He's even gone and apologized right after the fight for it and not tried to defend it like others would have.

I agree there is no need for it, however if someone has a reputation of pulling stunts like this and apologizing - we should be used to it.

the only thing i've been offended by was hopkins comment to calzaghe but i do think americans are more used to using race as an issue than brits are so i put it down to that .....

Tonight should have been the last time we see Hopkins in the ring(I hope).
He did land some good shots but couldn't phase Kovalev and didn't win a single round.
That ref should have stopped the fight in the last round and imo Richardson should not have let him go out for the final round but whatever.

Where are the morons who were constantly insisting that Hopkins would find a way out?
He got his ass beat start to finish, kept it mostly clean in there and kept trying to land a lottery punch(and getting slapped around the ring for it).

https://twitter.com/Woodsy1069/status/5 ... 2926361600

Hopkins said Kovalev was so smart, would step back, so he couldn't get get going. "he fought a good fight, a technical fight."

This contributed to the KD too.

Props to Kovalev, he fought a very disciplined and intelligent fight. He did in fact show good timing and counter punching. I still think there are some weaknesses to be exploited, but Hopkins wasn't able to capitalize on them.

ikorolev wrote:

NateJR wrote:Kovalev was too big, too strong and too good for Hopkins tonight. Kovalev proved a lot tonight, he does have some nice boxing skills, has patience and can fight a disciplined fight. Kovalev is the best fighter at 175 right now and there's nothing more I'd like to see than Kovalev vs. Stevenson for the final unification fight. (I got Kovalev by KO6 if that fight happens)

Big, big props to Hopkins. I know a lot of people here have disrespected Hopkins on many occasions. But this 49 year old man just went 12 rounds with one of the most dangerous guys in the sport. I hope Hopkins finally hangs them up and calls it a career, but this man deserves nothing but the utmost respect from anyone who calls themselves a boxing fan.

Yes, Bernard has HUGE balls. He did not surrender even though I think that his corner should have stopped the fight, and the ref had to stop the fight in 12th.

Hope there will be no negative effects.

I didn't like seeing Hopkins getting battered around the ring like that, the fight could have definitely been stopped in the 12th round. But I was happy to see Hopkins survive, I personally didn't want to see a 49 year old man go out with a TKO loss in what could be the last fight of his career when he'd never been stopped before (which might have been the reason the ref. was reluctant to stop it). But to be real, Hopkins was simply not going to win that fight at his age against a guy with the skills of Kovalev that was clearly much bigger and stronger (Kovalev looked a good weight-class bigger than Hopkins). I do keep under consideration that Hopkins is a 49 year old man (a freak of a man at that) and although he's very crafty and very smart he's not anywhere near his peak like Kovalev. Kovalev beat a great fighter in Hopkins, but I'm not sold that Kovalev beat Hopkins while Hopkins was still "GREAT". Good win for Kovalev, don't get me wrong I liked a lot of things I saw from him tonight and will definitely be looking forward to seeing him in the ring again(hopefully against Stevenson!), but this to me doesn't prove that Kovalev is a great fighter, he's very good but not yet "GREAT".

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

Great performance by both fighters for very different reasons. Bhop acknowledged at the end of the fight Kovalev had a great game plan and executed it perfectly. He was busy, aggressive and accurate. Bhop took some big shots that would have dropped many if not all of the other top light heavies going around.I hope he retires, he has absolutely nothing to prove - but if he did he showed tonight what a true warrior he is. Bhop v Stevenson is a toss up though and I wonder if he wants to fight at 50 and go out with a title !!
Well done to Kovalev. A monster puncher with great boxing skills and brains.

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

Kovalev was so successful against Hopkins for a lot of the same reasons Dawson was so successful against Hopkins. He boxed from the outside and used his range. I honestly didn't realize how much bigger Kovalev was than Hopkins, but to me it looked like a blown up Middleweight fighting a LHW and it didn't help Hopkins chances any by being 49 years old. Even if they were the same size I don't think Hopkins would have won the fight regardless, but I think age was much more of a factor.

...good win for Kovalev, he sort of brought the alien and his fans back down to earth...

NateJR wrote:

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

Kovalev was so successful against Hopkins for a lot of the same reasons Dawson was so successful against Hopkins. He boxed from the outside and used his range. I honestly didn't realize how much bigger Kovalev was than Hopkins, but to me it looked like a blown up Middleweight fighting a LHW and it didn't help Hopkins chances any by being 49 years old. Even if they were the same size I don't think Hopkins would have won the fight regardless, but I think age was much more of a factor.

Hopkins is actually taller than Kovalev ............... albeit very marginally. It was by no means a miss-match size wise it just looked like it.

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

NateJR wrote:

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

Kovalev was so successful against Hopkins for a lot of the same reasons Dawson was so successful against Hopkins. He boxed from the outside and used his range. I honestly didn't realize how much bigger Kovalev was than Hopkins, but to me it looked like a blown up Middleweight fighting a LHW and it didn't help Hopkins chances any by being 49 years old. Even if they were the same size I don't think Hopkins would have won the fight regardless, but I think age was much more of a factor.

Hopkins wasn't really "outboxed" in the traditional sense....

Dawson and Kovalev were just bigger and more athletic than Old man Hopkins.

If Hopkins was younger it would have played out differently imo, but at 50, he can't physically keep it up against a good bigger/younger boxer with a gameplan.

observer1 wrote:

NateJR wrote:

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

Kovalev was so successful against Hopkins for a lot of the same reasons Dawson was so successful against Hopkins. He boxed from the outside and used his range. I honestly didn't realize how much bigger Kovalev was than Hopkins, but to me it looked like a blown up Middleweight fighting a LHW and it didn't help Hopkins chances any by being 49 years old. Even if they were the same size I don't think Hopkins would have won the fight regardless, but I think age was much more of a factor.

Hopkins wasn't really "outboxed" in the traditional sense....

Dawson and Kovalev were just bigger and more athletic than Old man Hopkins.

If Hopkins was younger it would have played out differently imo, but at 50, he can't physically keep it up against a good bigger/younger boxer with a gameplan.

He was out-everythinged.

No version of Hopkins would have beaten Kovalev. Of course, the younger version was a middleweight anyway.

NateJR wrote:

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

Kovalev was so successful against Hopkins for a lot of the same reasons Dawson was so successful against Hopkins. He boxed from the outside and used his range. I honestly didn't realize how much bigger Kovalev was than Hopkins, but to me it looked like a blown up Middleweight fighting a LHW and it didn't help Hopkins chances any by being 49 years old. Even if they were the same size I don't think Hopkins would have won the fight regardless, but I think age was much more of a factor.

That's exactly what it was.

i also thought kovalev looked much bigger than hopkins even though they were nose to nose at the weigh-in.

either way, very impressed at kovalev's discipline to not over pursue and stick to the outside and pepper hopkins with good jabs and nice power shots.

Tarver and Pascal looked bigger too but nobody paid attention because Hopkins handled them. How one fighter looks is influenced by how the other fighter performs. That also applies to speed, skills, etc.

ikorolev wrote:Tarver and Pascal looked bigger too but nobody paid attention because Hopkins handled them. How one fighter looks is influenced by how the other fighter performs. That also applies to speed, skills, etc.

I don't think Pascal looked bigger.. Tarver, yes.

But the retroactive opinions are valid when you are facing someone almost 50 years old. Its the risk you take facing such an opponent. At some point, we all knew Father Time would catch Hopkins.. and it happened last night.

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.

ikorolev wrote: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.