Bernard Hopkins Vs. Sergey Kovalev – Breaking it Down by the Numbers
By Lou Eisen
Even at the ripe old age of 49, Bernard Hopkins still remains the best-trained and most prepared prizefighter in the sport today. He is fiercely disciplined and never looks for shortcuts while training for any of his fights. He knows implicitly that he would only be shortchanging himself in the long run and he has no desire to cut any corners when in training, as that could seriously harm or damage his tremendous boxing legacy. In other words, Bernard Hopkins will never beat himself.
There are very few situations in the ring that Hopkins has not faced before due to his vast boxing experience. The only way to beat Hopkins is to outsmart him and that is next to impossible to do. Hopkins has been proving the boxing critics wrong since 1988. Do you remember all of the fighters that were supposed to have easily beaten Hopkins but were never quite equal to the task? Felix Trinidad was heavily favored over Hopkins in their fight. It was thought that Trinidad would have no problem disposing of Hopkins by knockout early on in their 2001fight. Of course, if you recall, Hopkins dominated Trinidad and then knocked him out in round 12 to capture the WBA/WBC/IBF world middleweight titles.
Hopkins supposedly couldn’t beat the younger and faster Oscar De La Hoya. So what does he do? He goes and knocks out De La Hoya with a perfectly placed left hook to the liver in round nine. The story has repeated itself many times over during his lengthy Hall of Fame career. Antonio Tarver, Winky Wright, Kelly Pavlik, Jean Pascal, Tavoris Cloud and even Beibut Shumenov were all considered good enough to beat old man Hopkins. Hopkins beat them all convincingly and made every one of those victories look easy.
Hopkins has never once in his career ducked a challenge. This is why his next fight is so intriguing. On Saturday, November 8, at the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, Hopkins will face perhaps his toughest test yet at light-heavyweight when he takes on the awesome power-punching Russian knockout specialist, Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev in an attempt to unify the light-heavyweight division’s various titles. Once again, the scenario is very familiar. Once again he is up against “some big, bad, ugly monster that no one says he can beat,” as Muhammad Ali once said about his fight with George Foreman.
Hopkins wins his fights with a minimum of boxing and a maximum of brains. He is a great ring improviser and can easily switch gears during a fight to do what is necessary to win the match. Hopkins deserves much credit for taking on an absolutely brutal and simply devastating knockout specialist like Kovalev. Hopkins truly believes he can beat Kovalev. If he had any doubts at all, he would not have taken the fight.
In a very real sense, Kovalev is a much better opponent for Hopkins than Adonis Stevenson. Kovalev is a slow, plodding fighter who possesses phenomenal power in both hands. Stevenson is very, very quick in the ring. He moves around the squared circle very quickly, darting in to land flurries and then, just as quickly darting back out of range. Speed never slumps and Hopkins would have problems with Stevenson’s educated feet and super fast hands. Hopkins would be forced to chase Stevenson whereas Kovalev will walk straight towards Hopkins and into a myriad of tricks, traps and stinging counter right hands. Hopkins is a classic counter puncher and chasing Stevenson would force him to get off first, which he does not like to do.
Kovalev needs to fight a smart fight and work off of his jab in every round. If he just wades in to the fray looking for one big shot to put Hopkins away, he could end up having a futile and frustrating night. He needs to use his brains as well as his prodigious brawn. Against Hopkins, that is a very tough thing to do. Hopkins will try and slow the pace of the fight down to a crawl, while attempting to confuse Kovalev by keeping the fight on the ring perimeter. Hopkins is a grand master at landing sneaky right hooks and straight right hands.
One question that is asked often is, does Hopkins have enough power to stop Kovalev or at least make him wary of engaging at close quarters? It’s an interesting question but it is the wrong question to ask. Like many boxing greats previously, Hopkins will try to use Kovalev’s own momentum against him by walking him into repeated right hands. Any fighter that is hit on the button can go down and Kovalev is no exception to that rule. Unfortunately for B-Hop’s fans, neither is Hopkins.
Kovalev would be well served to shorten up on his shots. Kovalev throws very straight shots and seldom if ever loops his punches. However, Kovalev likes to punch from a distance at times in order to maximize his leverage in the ring. However, fighting that way against Hopkins could prove to be counter productive because it would give Hopkins enough time to see the shots coming and therefore slip and counter them effectively. Also, Kovalev will most likely ignore Hopkins head early on and concentrate on his body, which would be a very smart move. Neither man wastes many punches during a bout.
Kovalev has never faced a fighter as smart as Hopkins. Hopkins has never faced a fighter as strong as Kovalev. Their contrasting styles should make for an exciting fight. Kovalev carries his jab low and usually does not bring it back immediately after throwing it. Unless he corrects that flaw, Hopkins will be sure to take advantage of it with counter right hands. In fact, Hopkins would be wise to use his counter right hands to take away Kovalev’s jab altogether. One stat that may surprise most fans is that Hopkins is one inch taller than Kovalev at 6’1” tall. Hopkins also has a three-inch reach advantage as well. If the 49 year-old Hopkins can beat the 31 year-old Kovalev, it would be the perfect triumph to cap off a wonderful, Hall of Fame career. If Kovalev wins, there is a possibility that Hopkins might decide to retire. That would depend solely on the manner in which Hopkins loses the bout; by a stunning knockout or on points. Hopkins is now in a rarefied position in boxing circles. A victory would only enhance his greatness that much more, while a loss would do little or no harm to his Hall of Fame credentials.
One can almost feel sorry for Kovalev. Why? Well, if he loses the fight, he will have lost to a man nearly 50 years old. Even worse, if he wins, he beat up a man who is almost 50 years old. Kovalev should theoretically have no problems whatsoever destroying a man of 50. Maybe Hopkins is telling the truth. Maybe he really is an alien from another planet where fighters don’t age. Now that would be even more impressive!