Bernard Hopkins, Paulie Malignaggi and Peter Quillin See Action Saturday on Showtime – BOXING NEWS
By Geno McGahee
This Saturday, 49-year-old, Bernard “The Alien” Hopkins, 54-6-2, 32 KO’s, returns to the ring in a light heavyweight title unification bout against Beibut Shumenov, 14-1, 9 KO’s. The division is packed with talent and Hopkins has been on borrowed time for a long time, but he has picked his opponents carefully and knows what style he can defeat at this stage of his career. The slow plodding guys like Kelly Pavlik, Tavoris Cloud and Jean Pascal were easy to frustrate and outpoint. Hopkins is a puzzle, but the solution is speed and work rate. Joe Calzaghe and Chad Dawson proved it. Shumenov is not a fast fighter and that is why he is there Saturday night.
What Shumenov has going for him is power and ambition. He has knocked out three of his last four opponents and has been clamoring for a marquee fight. He’s got one and he is hoping that he will be the man that finally sends “The Alien” out of the sport. For an upset to occur, Father Time has to have caught up with Hopkins and Beibut will have to step on the gas when he’s in the ring. In Hopkins’ last fight against Karo Murat, he slugged it out. It’s unknown if he did that to make a more exciting fight or if he had to at this stage of his career. Beibut is going to find out. He may be the right guy at the right time.
In the supporting bout, we have Paulie Malignaggi, 33-5, 7 KO’s, is looking to win the IBF welterweight title against new champ, Shawn Porter, 23-0-1, 14 KO’s. Malignaggi is coming off of a win over Zab Judah and a competitive loss to Adrien Broner, and is hoping to upset the aggressive champion.
Porter showed that he belonged in the division when he beat up the highly regarded Devon Alexander to take the title. Porter hasn’t scored a knockout in some time, but he should be confident coming into this fight and will press Malignaggi. This could be another big statement and the end of Malignaggi as a contender, or he could fall into the Magic Man’s trap and get confused and lose a decision. This is a very interesting bout.
Rounding out the card is middleweight champion, Peter Quillin, 30-0, 22 KO’s, defending his title against Lukas Konecny, 50-4, 23 KO’s. Quillin is in another rich division where he could set up some major fights and make some serious money, but he is in tough against Konecny. He is aggressive and will be pressing the champion and he has never been knocked out. Quillin, if he cannot put the challenger in his place, may be in trouble in this one. This is a must watch as well.
Showtime has put together one great triple header on Saturday night. Each fight is very compelling.