"Alien" Hopkins vs "Krusher" Kovalev Post fight Discussion thread

[mrbigshot]

b hops lateral movement may bother Kov - but i do believe Kov cuts the ring off well and throws with both hands - with decent power and hand speed.

kov also has a very very good trainer - who will prepare him well.

more worrying for Kovalev is the mental games that hopkins can play - Kovalev has let smaller stuff bug him in previous fights where he has been very aggressive to prove a point will that be his down fall???

also stamina for kov and the fact he has been cut in his last few fights. the one thing kov does well is he cuts off the ring and punches in bunches - all not with power but he will throw 2 or 3 soft shots then load up with one afterwards.

stamina is one of the key points - b hop has been the 12 round limit shed loads of times he knows how to pace himself and knows the wall and 2nd wind feels like.

kov does not - maybe the fight does not go past 6 rounds - you never know but history and record suggests bernard will still be there - the guy has a good chin. but he can be hurt - one was a flash knock down by pascal but one was a real knock down - pascal is explosive but don't believe he hits like kov does.

so many intangibles - hopkins keeps defying father time - surely he will meet it one of these days.

i think b hop is starting to slow down i know the last 2 guys he fought - he didn't truly respect them but reflexes and timing seemed to take a few rounds to kick in.

hopkins can lower a fighters output - he did it to pavlik, cloud and pascal - he may do it too kov - with movement and subtle feints. but i do believe the high output from kov - a bit like calazaghe will not differ from his game plan - yes hopkins is a great counter puncher but i really believe kov goes well to the body and head.

previous guys who he had fought all displayed decent beards but once kov touched them - they were destroyed.

i can see him touching bernard - getting respect and managing to get his punches off - but he needs to pace himself because i can see this going near the distance - stamina worries me - not physically more mental for kov but i believe he's too fresh and too in his prime for hopkins to be able to pull for a boxing masterclass

last point because i am going on - but i do worry because i want kov to win nothing against hopkins but i want kov to smash the pimp.

but why has hopkins took this fight - WHY - he saw something in pavlik - maybe he has saw something in kov - inexperience - lack of preparation for hopkins himself????

in pavlik i saw what hopkins saw - basically a one handed fighter who throws the same one two. and the weight was also a factor.

but with kov i know he is a two handed fighter and throws punches in combinations and has true knock out power at 75

i still remember hopkins blowing out of his arse against calzaghe and that was around 5 to 6 yrs ago - i can see a late stoppage for kov or more likely a wide decision victory

[Weltschmerz]

Another murder victim for Kovalev.

[MDPopescu]

Hopkins will fake an injury in the first three rounds and they'll stop the fight.

That is precisely why -- when I've tried to settle a bet here, that B-Hop will not fight Kovalev till he retires -- I specifically underlined that the bet doesn't stand if there will be a "no-contest" fight due to injury in the early rounds...

[MDPopescu]

I honestly can't see how anyone can say Hopkins' resume is better than Mayweather's. His best wins are not as good as Mayweather's best wins, and his quality and depth is nowhere near.

To think what would happen if Floyd defended titles against such champions as Steve Frankl & William Bo James

"Resumes" are sometimes tricky to assess...
Hopkins' overall career outcome is unmatched to date...

[TintaBoricua]

Where the hell is all this Kovalev hype coming from?

Hopkins is not getting stopped. A mere glimpse into Kovalev's boxing record shows that:

#1: He's undefeated. So people are naturally excited and they start wanking to it.

#2: Punching power. Okay, we get it. He's been smashing people left and right. And quick at that.

However, there's an asterisk to that. If you are undefeated with a string of constant KO's (and early ones at that), I tend to believe that having too many of them and in long succession is a detriment. Isn't anybody here thinking that perhaps Kovalev is banking too much on his power and doing the SAME EXACT thing that Trinidad and Pavlik thought? Which is to knock Hopkins out.

If you look at Kovalev's last 10 fights, you'll see that 7 of them have ended within 3 rounds. 2 of them in round 7, and one was a technical decision. What happens when Kovalev is taken into deep waters? He has never seen the ninth round! Bernard is in a league of his own and coupled with the championship rounds, we'll see a flustered Kovalev wondering what the hell he got himself into while fighting a 50 year old legend.

I swear, many of you are way too impressionable with undefeated power punchers...

[MDPopescu]

All his recent opponents wanted to take Kovalev into deep waters... until they got badly caught...

[LacedUp]

"Resumes" are sometimes tricky to assess...
Hopkins' overall career outcome is unmatched to date...

Not really.

And overall accomplishments, Mayweather is even further ahead of Hopkins.

Hopkins has longevity on his side, fair enough - and that's an awesome accomplishment. But Pascal, Cloud, Shumenov and Murat etc is hardly a murderous row if we're honest. He has a pretty good resume, but nothing that could ever challenge the likes of Pacquiao, Mayweather or Roy Jones jr at all.

Neither can his overall career.

[LacedUp]

Careful you may get called a "hater" for this

Of course though that's not true.

I'm not a Hopkins fan at all - but I don't hate him. Just like I don't really consider myself a Mayweather fan, but like Hopkins I respect him.

But as with any other fighter, I would say if he had a better resume/career - but he just clearly doesn't and anyone who says so are either blind or don't know what they're talking about.

[IronDanHamza]

Not really.

And overall accomplishments, Mayweather is even further ahead of Hopkins.

Hopkins has longevity on his side, fair enough - and that's an awesome accomplishment. But Pascal, Cloud, Shumenov and Murat etc is hardly a murderous row if we're honest. He has a pretty good resume, but nothing that could ever challenge the likes of Pacquiao, Mayweather or Roy Jones jr at all.

Neither can his overall career.

Mayweather has longevity aswell though. 18 years he's been pro now.

Hopkins won his first title in 1994, Floyd won his first title in 1997.

[LacedUp]

Mayweather has longevity aswell though. 18 years he's been pro now.

Hopkins won his first title in 1994, Floyd won his first title in 1997.

Yeah absolutely and how old is he? 38 or something? It's not like he's a spring chicken himself.