Sergey Kovalev VS Bernard Hopkins is on!

[Charles Martel]

From Dan Rafael:

Purses for #HopkinsKovalev: BHop $1,000,000 Kovalev $500,000 , Ali $100 K, Abregu $75 K

If Kovalev were black, with his exciting style he'd likely be making over $1.5 million.

 

[Blue Devils]

My prediction: Kovalev in 8.

If Sergey gets off to a good start, you can bet Hopkins will start his usual theatrics (faking fouls etc).

 

[Ambrose]

Hopkin's record shows 55-6-2-2; don't know if he has ever fought outside of "U.S.". I view his record as at least 55-10 as the "draws" and "no contests" are gifts to a notorious cheater and good actor. Other close bouts he may have been judged "victor" but a more impartial tribunal may have adjudged "defeat". His record is more likely 53-12. That is a good record but by no means remarkable. Consider also many of his past fights were mere formalities as the outcomes were presumed in his favour when he fought fighters who were of no challenge to him; consider further he is very likely a PED user and how many fights has he had the advantage of using PEDs while his opponents did not: who knows? The point here is that Hopkins is not truly what he, and his simple adorers, present him to be.

 

[The Hock]

Hopkins often refers to boxing as "the game" and that's how he approaches it, with lots of tricks, legal and not so much. His fights with De La Hoya and Trinidad, smaller fighters he knew he could go after, were fun to watch. But when he reverts to his Borenard mode, content to dink and dunk, outhink and outpoint his opponents, he's nothing special. I don't tune in to watch fighters think. But I will grant that going as he is at his age is exceptional.

So we know what Hopkins is, but how good really is Kovalev? I'll go with the judgement of all the fighters who have been ducking him and say he is very good. He should at some point get Hopkins in real trouble, and the question will be can Kovalev deny Hopkins the time to think up some way to muddy the water and save face.

 

[Ambrose]

Whatever Hopkins was is not relevant today; today Hopkins fights Kovalev. We look at how has Hopkins fought recently -not who and how he fought 5 years ago. Recently Hopkins fought Karo Murat, a shorter puncher, and Shumenov, a taller "put-up-your-dukes" flatfoot. In both fights Hopkins did a lot of acting and posturing which befuddled both fighters; when Hopkins presented a posture (a stance, a gesture, a fake) the fighters would stop combat and look. In other words, both of those fighters fell for the act.

In spite of this, both fighters were able to land punches on Hopkins and both fights went the distance. Murat was cut by a head butt and had to struggle against a referee who would not let him fight through Hopkin's incessant holding. Shumenov fared better than Murat as he fought to a close SD while suffering a knock down. What do we gather from these results?

If these mediocre fighters can hit Hopkins, why should we believe that suddenly Hopkins is much better and able to slip all of Kovalev's attacks? Why should anyone believe Kovalev can't land on Hopkins since Murat and Shumenov were both able to? What would likely occur if Murat and Shumenov fought Kovalev? I think neither fighter would survive 6 rounds against him. Hopkins will have to slip all of Kovalev's punches to avoid his power as blocks won't do him any good: Kovalev hits too hard. Kovalev will connect both partially and through complete blocks.

But Murat and Shumenov are not champions and Hopkins is even older now. Kovalev is a champion and I think Kovalev will not be deceived by Hopkin's acting. Kovalev will pursue and punch, move and make Hopkins sore and exhausted; by the latter rounds Hopkins will be just plain beat up or Kovalev may just land one of his atomic bombs and Hopkins will quit. Hopkins just doesn't have enough in his arsenal to stop or out-point a hard working Krusher.

 

[BoxingSpecialist2]

From Dan Rafael:

Purses for #HopkinsKovalev: BHop $1,000,000 Kovalev $500,000 , Ali $100 K, Abregu $75 K

If Kovalev were black, with his exciting style he'd likely be making over $1.5 million.

I can't stand Bernard at all, and I'm hoping Sergey KOs him.

But in the interest of fairness I find the purse split to be fair. Bernard has been around boxing way longer and beaten bigger names than Kovalev hence the split. So it stands to reason he's paid more.

Now, if Kovalev wins this fight then in future you'd expect Sergey's purse to increase exponentially.

I see your point that if Sergey were black/American he'd be making more. Sergey spoke about his difficulty finding a promoter in USA that would sign him. And he only began profiting from boxing 1.5 years ago. Meanwhile comparatively less talented Americans like Andre Berto are signed early on and given preferential treatment from day 1. Berto was paid more than 1,000,000$ on numerous occasions fighting absolute bums on HBO and Showtime.

Purse seems to have very little correlation to talent in boxing.

 

[BoxingSpecialist2]

There will be streams here:

http://firstrowca.eu/sport/boxing-wwe-ufc.html

and here:

http://forum.wiziwig.eu/threads/921...-Fighting-Weekly-Schedule-(5th-11th-November)

Thank you very much for your contributions to this site. Your always posting streams and the community greatly appreciates it.

 

[werewolf]

Sez it starts at 10:45 ET:

http://www.hbo.com/#/sports

They're off daylight savings time now in case you don't know, so that's 8:45PM Pacific Time (unless my advanced mathematical computation is eroneous). That's pretty late to start a boxing match, isn't it?

 

[whiteathlete33]

There can be no excuse for Kovalev. He absolutely has to win. I would certainly take a decision but that will be difficult to get in a hostile environment. Hopkins is 20 years older and even though he's the best fighter that Kovalev has ever faced, he still needs to find a way to win. The old bastard will hold as much as possible to try and neutralize Sergeys power. And yes, Hopkins has much more pro experience but Kovalev has a significant amateur background.

 

[werewolf]

David Fields is the referee.

 

[werewolf]

The bookies still have Kovalev a 2 1/2 or 3 to one favorite.

 

[whiteathlete33]

The bookies still have Kovalev a 2 1/2 or 3 to one favorite.

Can you imagine if Kovalev loses this fight? The entire boxing world will say he's overrated and he got beat by an old man!

 

[white is right]

I can't stand Bernard at all, and I'm hoping Sergey KOs him.

But in the interest of fairness I find the purse split to be fair. Bernard has been around boxing way longer and beaten bigger names than Kovalev hence the split. So it stands to reason he's paid more.

Now, if Kovalev wins this fight then in future you'd expect Sergey's purse to increase exponentially.

I see your point that if Sergey were black/American he'd be making more. Sergey spoke about his difficulty finding a promoter in USA that would sign him. And he only began profiting from boxing 1.5 years ago. Meanwhile comparatively less talented Americans like Andre Berto are signed early on and given preferential treatment from day 1. Berto was paid more than 1,000,000$ on numerous occasions fighting absolute bums on HBO and Showtime.

Purse seems to have very little correlation to talent in boxing.

It always amazes me that Hopkins can make 7 figures for a fight. In his biggest bouts he has been the b-side for the most part. He fights a technical style that is boring to anybody but the most hardcore of fan or nuthugger. If he were 29 instead of 49 he would be lucky to be having defenses on ESPN let alone HBO. When it comes to his racist statements I'm not sure he believes them or he is just trying to push buttons. I suspect it's some where in the middle. His latest statement if he were Jewish or Italian he would be popular.......http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/i...ace-reason-pursuit-history-transcended-boxing

 

[Rap Is Crap]

I'm sure Hopkins' racist ramblings are all just to hype up the fight, but what bothers me the most about it is how no white fighter would be able to say anything similar and get away with it. The Klitschkos would have every right to be pissed off about their lack of recognition by the media and DWFs but if they were to dare say "If we were blacks, we would be popular" they would have been stripped of their titles and be banned from the sport entirely.

I'm really hoping for Kovalev to KO this old black clown.

 

[Liverlips]

I'm sure Hopkins' racist ramblings are all just to hype up the fight, but what bothers me the most about it is how no white fighter would be able to say anything similar and get away with it. The Klitschkos would have every right to be pissed off about their lack of recognition by the media and DWFs but if they were to dare say "If we were blacks, we would be popular" they would have been stripped of their titles and be banned from the sport entirely.

I'm really hoping for Kovalev to KO this old black clown.

Well said and 100% true.

I bet Hopkins will feign injury like he always does when getting beat up (Calzaghe, Dawson).

 

[Liverlips]

For the first time in a while I am looking forward to a boxing match over a UFC card.

 

[Westside]

I can't stand Bernard at all, and I'm hoping Sergey KOs him.

But in the interest of fairness I find the purse split to be fair. Bernard has been around boxing way longer and beaten bigger names than Kovalev hence the split. So it stands to reason he's paid more.

Now, if Kovalev wins this fight then in future you'd expect Sergey's purse to increase exponentially.

I see your point that if Sergey were black/American he'd be making more. Sergey spoke about his difficulty finding a promoter in USA that would sign him. And he only began profiting from boxing 1.5 years ago. Meanwhile comparatively less talented Americans like Andre Berto are signed early on and given preferential treatment from day 1. Berto was paid more than 1,000,000$ on numerous occasions fighting absolute bums on HBO and Showtime.

Purse seems to have very little correlation to talent in boxing.

I agree BS2, when I 1st found out that Sergey was getting 500K, I thought he was being hosed. However, Bbore is getting only 1 million after all the names he has beat and the career span, its fair. Its more a testament to Bbore's boring fights and dirty style.

 

[werewolf]

Sick of these British idiots going on endlessly about their precious "Bernard" and Jones and all their other black heroes....bla bla bla bla bla.

 

[Charles Martel]

Sick of these British idiots going on endlessly about their precious "Bernard" and Jones and all their other black heroes....bla bla bla bla bla.

John Rawling sounds like a homosexual with a fixation on Negro men.

 

[BoxingSpecialist2]

Sick of these British idiots going on endlessly about their precious "Bernard" and Jones and all their other black heroes....bla bla bla bla bla.

Lol... +1

 

[BoxingSpecialist2]

Sadam Ali (Yemeni-American) VS Luis Carlos Abregu (Spanish-Argentinean) on the undercard coming up now. Very interesting fight. Ali has a good amateur background and has some good skills, but Abregu is tough as nails, hits hard, and awkward as hell.

I like Ali... but I think Abregu upsets him by KO in this fight.

Great undercard matchup btw... saw a Ukrainian guy earlier (Shabransky) he looked good, someone to keep an eye on.

 

[werewolf]

Shabransky did look very good, even tho his opponent was just a punching bag.

 

[Westside]

The HBO crew is currently calling a fair undercard fight right now.

 

[werewolf]

the streams are already freezing up. they'll be sure to freeze up for the big fight.

 

[BoxingSpecialist2]

Great fight between Ali-Abregu. Ali boxed well and even scored a knockdown but Abregu putting a lot of pressure in the last rounds. Ali in survival mode.