Sergey Kovalev Crushes Bernard Hopkins – Fight Recap
By Lou Eisen
Last night at the cavernous Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, Sergey Kovalev won all twelve rounds of his fight with Bernard “The Alien” Hopkins by a very wide margin and, in so doing, added the WBA and IBF light-heavyweight world titles to his own WBO light-heavyweight bauble, to become the unified light-heavyweight world champion. Mind you it is slightly disingenuous to say that Hopkins lost the fight because to call tonight’s bout a “fight” would imply that Hopkins fired shots back at Kovalev when, in fact, he did virtually nothing for the first 11 rounds of the bout other than take a hellacious beating from a man 18 years his junior. Round 12 was even worse for Hopkins.
Hopkins was on the verge of being knocked out in the 12 and final round but somehow managed to make it out of the round still on his feet. He certainly looked to be only one or two good punches away from being knocked out but, through grit, determination and the divine grace of God, Hopkins somehow managed to make it to the final bell. Many of Hopkins most ardent fans left the arena bitterly disappointed in Hopkins (pitiful) performance, or lack thereof. Hopkins talked a much better fight than he fought. It was as much Father Time as it was Kovalev that beat Hopkins tonight. Kovalev certainly helped by fighting a very smart bout and refusing to fight Hopkins fight.
Kovalev threw and landed many short, powerful right hands on top of Hopkins head, and then darted away, thereby not giving Hopkins any chance to counterpunch him effectively or with any consistency throughout the fight. Kovalev usually throws long right hands across his body against most of his foes. He does this because he usually has no respect for his ring rivals and believes that their counter shots carry no threats. Against Hopkins he was extra cautious, which is a smart way to fight Hopkins.
There was a method to Kovalev’s madness. Kovalev threw short punches and then took a step or two back for a good reason. Why? Well, because Hopkins has a history of head-butting and Kovalev did not want to give him any chances to use his head in the fight, which is not to say Hopkins did not try to butt the big Russian on several occasions. Hopkins tried constantly to head butt Kovalev in the belly but the Russian fighter was too smart for such nonsense. He would back off and then put Hopkins in a headlock, immobilizing him until ref Harvey Dock separated them.
The fight started off with a bang when Kovalev dropped Hopkins to the canvas in round one with a straight, powerful right hand to the head. Hopkins went down but got up showing no ill effects from the shot. The crowd roared and Kovalev’s manager, Kathy Duva stood up with both fists clenched in the air, hoping Kovalev would deliver another one of his spectacular early round knockouts. This did not happen but Kovalev did manage to issue Hopkins the single worst beating of his entire career. Hopkins suffered what the British commonly refer to as a “terrible hiding.”
In the early rounds of the bout, Hopkins wore a facial expression that seemed to say, “I think I have bitten off way more than I can ever possibly hope to chew with this guy.” Hopkins probably realized sooner rather than later that taking on Kovalev was a huge mistake on his part.
HBO’s usually stellar broadcast team needs to get more interesting talking points as they thought it was crucial to mention ad infinitum that Kovalev had never before gone past eight rounds in a fight. Even when it was obviously apparent that it was a complete non-issue, HBO’s broadcasters still nattered on incessantly about Kovalev’s never having gone more than 8 rounds. Kovalev had no problems whatsoever going the full distance while at the same time destroying Hopkins body and head with savage two-fisted attacks.
Hopkins biggest problem early on was that he was unable to earn Kovalev’s respect in the fight. Hopkins simply did not have the power to back Kovalev off or the strength to push him away. Kovalev was magnificent at cutting off the ring on Hopkins. Hopkins bore a striking resemblance to a caged and frightened rodent that knows the end is nigh. Kovalev blocked all of Hopkins exit routes, forcing him to fight back at close range, which is clearly not Hopkins preferred way of fighting.
As great and experienced as Hopkins is in the ring, Kovalev outsmarted him at every turn. Hopkins became rather frustrated early on in the proceedings and when B-Hop gets frustrated, he resorts to dirty tactics and tonight against Kovalev was certainly no exception. In the third round, out of sheer desperation, Hopkins grabbed Kovalev and threw him to the mat. Kovalev deserves credit for not losing his cool and sticking to his game plan. Essentially Kovalev took whatever Hopkins offered him rather than go headhunting with every punch.
In round four, Hopkins was still much too hesitant with his shots. He feared getting countered with a big punch that might drop him or worse and when you are in the ring with a big banger like Kovalev that is a legitimate concern. Kovalev was doing much more than beating Hopkins to the punch. He was beating him up as well, throwing rib-cracking punches to the body with both hands, while displaying an unbridled ferocity seldom seen in the heavier weight divisions of boxing these days.
Kovalev took the first six rounds of the fight on the scorecards of all three judges. Yet Hopkins chief second Brother Nazim Richardson, keep telling Hopkins what he needed to do to win. Hopkins, for a plethora of reasons, was never able to execute any of Richardson’s wise words. Most baffling during the fight was the refusal of everyone in Hopkins corner to tell him the truth. Someone should have told him flatly, “Bernard, you have lost the first six rounds. You need to get busy and start touching him up. If you lose one more round, your only chance at victory will be by a knockout.” Of course that conversation did not take place until after round 11, when Hopkins was too far behind to pull out a victory.
Deep in his soul, Hopkins must have felt a slight but unique kinship with the prostitutes who nightly walk the Boardwalk outside the arena in Atlantic City. At the end of the evening, Hopkins and the prostitutes both had nothing to offer up to the men in front of them except their warm bodies for just under an hour of abuse and pay.
In round eight, while attempting to back out of harm’s way, Hopkin’s took a hellacious right hand to the side of the head that staggered him. How he managed to stay on his feet and continue on is a testament to his great chin and conditioning. In round ten, Hopkins managed to tag Kovalev with a successful four-punch flurry that did little or no damage to the Russian “Krusher.” Hopkins took ungodly fistic abuse from the heavy-handed Kovalev for the rest of the round.
Trainer Richardson told Hopkins after one of the championship rounds, “Bernard, if you can’t do anything I am asking of you, then maybe we should consider stopping this fight.” Hopkins had no response. Sadly, rounds nine through 12 were simply embarrassing for Hopkins to have endured.
When the bell rang for the final round of the bout, both warriors touched gloves in center ring looking rather tired. In the opening seconds of round 12, it appeared that Hopkins had staggered Kovalev with a hard left hand. It didn’t happen. HBO cameras missed the salient part of the exchange. Kovalev tripped over Hopkins right leg while moving out of counter-punching rage. It was the trip more than the force of a blow that sent Kovalev reeling backwards, temporarily off-balance.
Hopkins was staggered from pillar to post in round 12. Kovalev went all out for the knockout and it looked at one point, with about 25 seconds left in the fight, that ref Dock might stop the fight but he chose not to. Dock allowed Hopkins to go out on his own two feet, like a sure fire future Hall of Fame inductee should. The scores were anti-climactic when announced. Judge Larry Layton scored it for Kovalev by a margin of 120-106. Judges Carlos Ortiz Jr. and Clark Sammartino turned in identical cards of 120-107 for Kovalev. Kovalev scored the widest margin of victory over Hopkins in his entire career. Hopkins definitely deserves credit for going the distance with a monster puncher like Kovalev while sustaining the worst beating of his career.
Kovalev landed 38 punches on Hopkins in round 12, almost all of which were power shots. That is the most punches Hopkins has been hit with in one round in 41 of his pro fights. Ultimately, Kovalev fought a very smart fight by fighting his own fight and not fighting Hopkins fight. Hopkins, in a rare moment of humility, was very gracious in defeat, calling Kovalev, “A much smarter fighter than I gave him credit for. He is incredibly fast, with educated feet, fast hands, great defense and great offense. He was just too much for me tonight. I tip my hat to him. He is a great young champion and he will help boxing a lot.”
Kovalev for his part, praised Hopkins too, saying that, “Hopkins should really retire before he gets seriously hurt. He has done a lot of great things for boxing and is many times champion but now is time to go. He can still win one more light-heavy title by defeating (Adonis) Stevenson, which he will do easily.” Hopkins does not know if he will continue to fight, saying that the odds on him returning to the ring are 50-50.
Regardless of the fact that Hopkins lost every round by a very wide margin, and simply had nothing left in his gas tank except exhaust fumes, and took the worst beating of his career, he still got to hold his head up high when he exited the ring tonight in Atlantic City. The reason for that is simple. His emphatic loss tonight to Kovalev will not in any way tarnish his truly astonishing boxing legacy.
He will enter the Hall of Fame having dominated both the middleweight and light-heavyweight divisions for a long time. He is an all-time great by any standard you may choose to measure boxing greatness and immortality. In the final analysis, if this is truly the end of his magnificent, storybook career, Hopkins proved irrefutably after thoroughly dominating and cleaning out two different weight divisions in almost four different decades (1980’s, 1990’s, 2000-2010 and 2011 to 2014), that boxing will surely miss him much more than he will miss boxing.