The Hottest Boxing Storylines for the Week of November 3
It's finally a big fight week, and we have quite a few good ones for you this upcoming weekend.
We discuss whether Bernard Hopkins can once again turn back the challenge of Father Time and if Sergey "Krusher" Kovalev is his most dangerous foe to date.
Looking forward, we try to get an idea of how significant a Hopkins victory would be on Saturday night. In a career full of odds-defying performances, where would this one rate for the Alien, should he pull it off?
Hopkins vs. Kovalev is going to suck all the air out of the room in the week ahead, but there are a couple of other significant fights, including one on the undercard, which matches a Golden Boy Promotions boxer against a Top Rank puncher.
How will that bout shake out?
Finally, we shift across the way to Germany and assess whether Felix Sturm or Robert Stieglitz can turn back the clock and put in one more big performance when they meet on Saturday night.
These are the hottest storylines in boxing for the first week of November.
Can the Alien Topple Father Time Yet Again?
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Hopkins will meet Kovalev on Saturday night in Atlantic City, New Jersey, with three-fourths of the light heavyweight championship on the line.
The 49-year-old has made his money in boxing (more than enough to live on), and he could be doing what most financially secure men of his age do—live the life.
He could be sunning himself on some beach somewhere fly-fishing or just soaking it up while well-dressed waiters bring him colorful drinks with little umbrellas in them, but resting on his laurels just isn’t encoded in Hopkins’ DNA.
He’s a fighter. It’s all he knows, and he’s going to keep on doing it until someone stops him.
Still, it’s remarkable that we’ve even gotten to this point—you could’ve filled a phone booth with the number of people who felt this fight would ever happen—and it’s a testament to Hopkins, 49, and his desire to still challenge himself with the toughest fights available.
And given Kovalev’s power and reputation, this isn’t just the toughest fight available; it’s one of the toughest in the entire sport.
It seems we’ve been saying for years now—because we have—that Father Time would eventually catch up to Hopkins.
We said it before he beat Antonio Tarver.
Ditto for Kelly Pavlik, Jean Pascal and, more recently, Tavoris Cloud and Beibut Shumenov to once again lift shares of the 175-pound title.
A victory on Saturday would make Hopkins—once again breaking his own record—the oldest man in boxing history to capture and unify a world championship, and it would come at the cost of the division’s most dangerous puncher.
But could this finally be the night that Father Time emerges, taking his bounty from the seemingly ageless Alien and allowing a new champion to emerge?
It’s certainly possible, but given Hopkins’ track record, you shouldn’t bet the farm on it—Father Time hasn’t beaten him yet.
Expect Hopkins to do what he always does: find a way.
Is Kovalev the Most Dangerous Foe of Hopkins' Career?
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Kovalev, what can you say?
The man is nothing short of a 6'0", 175-pound wrecking ball with gloves.
The Russian bomber has knocked out his last nine foes, sports a knockout percentage above 88 percent—just behind Gennady Golovkin among active champions—and presents a very matter-of-fact method of attack in the ring.
There’s very little emotion in Kovalev’s game.
He stalks you like The Terminator, zeroes in and pounds you until mentally you’ve had enough or your body just can’t take anymore and you take a nap.
Hopkins has faced many a good and even great fighter in his day, but is Kovalev the most dangerous?
You’d have a hard time arguing otherwise.
Has he fought better fighters?
Probably, but more dangerous?
Doubtful.
And Hopkins was very conscious of this fact, telling the media on a conference call last week:
“If he [Kovalev] can punch like everybody says he can punch, there might not be no second chances.”
The response came to a question about whether Hopkins would be able to show he can take Kovalev’s best shots in order to demoralize and frustrate him.
Hopkins is no fool.
There’s absolutely no way he’s going to eat the Krusher’s best shots if he can avoid it.
And with good reason, because like he said, there might not be any second chances if he does.
Where Would a Hopkins Win Rate?
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Hopkins just doesn’t quit.
He promised his mother than he would retire after taking Tarver’s light heavyweight title in dominant fashion back in 2006, but eight years, 12 fights and three world titles later, he continues trucking along.
Hopkins has beaten a better class of opponent just since his 40th birthday than many fighters do in their entire careers: Tarver, Winky Wright, Pavlik, Roy Jones Jr., Pascal, Cloud, Shumenov and now an attempt to add Kovalev to that list.
So where would the Russian power puncher rate among Hopkins’ greatest wins, should he add him to the list?
It’s a difficult question, and boxing writers and historians will be debating the Executioner-turned-Alien’s place in the annals of boxing greatness for some years to come.
Most people would probably say that his victory over Felix Trinidad—given the dominance and historical significance of it—would rate as Hopkins’ best individual performance to date inside the ring.
More recently, you could add his easy wins over Tarver and Pavlik to that list, but none of those guys were on the danger level of Kovalev.
And to take on a guy like that in the shadow of your 50th birthday?
Few fighters would even think of attempting such a feat.
No.
Hopkins is trying to do something truly special here, and if he gets his man, it might just turn out to be the greatest achievement of his career.
And in his case, that’s really saying something.
It would be a transcendent achievement, something that goes beyond the bounds of boxing and quite possibly even sports itself.
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Will Sadam Ali Take the Next Step?
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Sadam Ali has developed a reputation as a pretty solid prospect in the New York/New Jersey area, but he’s going to take a big step up in class on Saturday’s Hopkins vs. Kovalev undercard in Atlantic City.
Ali (20-0, 12 KO), a 2008 U.S. Olympian promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, will take on Luis Carlos Abregu (36-1, 29 KO), a hard-punching Argentine who fights under the Top Rank banner.
The fight is significant for the welterweight division, but it’s also significant as the first fight (willingly) to be signed between the former promotional rivals since 2011.
Ali represented the United States at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, but he failed to get out of the opening round and turned professional. He’s a well-known figure in his hometown of Brooklyn, New York, and Golden Boy has high hopes for him in the loaded 147-pound division.
Abregu is the puncher to Ali’s boxer. He’s won seven straight fights since losing to Timothy Bradley in 2010, upsetting prospects Thomas Dulorme and Antonin Decarie in the process.
This is a risky fight for both men and, really, both promoters. It matches a slick boxer with a big puncher, and the loser could have a pretty far drop down the rankings with so much talent in the division.
Ali, and Abregu for that matter, has a huge opportunity here, but it comes with great risk.
Do Felix Sturm or Robert Stieglitz Have One More Good Fight in Them?
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Sturm and Stieglitz, for years two of the biggest draws in German boxing, will meet in a crossroads super middleweight bout on Saturday night in Stuttgart, Germany, and the winner will have a pretty good case for continuing his career.
Sturm has held a share of the middleweight title on four separate occasions, but he’s probably best known in the United States for losing a highly controversial decision to Oscar De La Hoya back in 2004.
The decision, to this day considered bogus by many, allowed The Golden Boy to move forward with a planned challenge of Hopkins, and Sturm hasn’t fought in the United States since.
His most recent run as middleweight champion was ended by Sam Soliman, who took a clear decision and his belt in May.
Stieglitz is the naturally bigger man, having twice reigned as WBO super middleweight champion.
Like Sturm, he recently dropped his title, losing a split decision to Arthur Abraham in the rubber match of their series this past March.
While Sturm vs. Stieglitz isn’t going to do much to move the needle among American fight fans—it’s Hopkins vs. Kovalev week and the two have three combined fights in the U.S. between them—you can’t underestimate how big a fight this will be in Germany.
The question is: Which man has more left in the tank, and who will emerge with a new lease on his professional life?
Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand.
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