Sergey Kovalev's Blueprint for Beating Bernard Hopkins in Upcoming Title Fight
Undefeated WBO light heavyweight titlist Sergey Kovalev (25-0-1, 23 KOs) has scary power, the kind that keeps most of his 175-pound brethren from wanting to step inside the ring with him.
Just ask Adonis Stevenson. The WBC, Ring Magazine and Transnational Rankings light heavyweight champion thought long and hard enough of a proposed bout with Kovalev earlier this year that he actually switched networks in what appears to be a move aimed simply at avoiding the 31-year-old power-puncher altogether.
But Bernard Hopkins (55-8-2, 32 KOs) isn’t like most fighters. The WBA and IBF light heavyweight titleholder is a throwback to a different era. He’s a man with no fear.
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Hopkins, age 49, seeks the biggest, best and toughest fights he can find. He’ll find exactly that on Saturday night against Kovalev.
Kovalev isn’t a planner. Speaking to the media last week during an open workout in Florida, Kovalev said he didn’t plan on studying Hopkins at all.
“I don’t study anybody,” said Kovalev. “It is better to go to the gym to do some work for my shape or spend time to cook my breakfast or sleep in my bed.”
Kovalev is right in a way. No one outthinks a master pugilist like Hopkins. Kovalev is wise to leave his thinking cap off ahead of the showdown.
But Kovalev absolutely should have a plan going into the fight. Hopkins sure will. The crafty technician will throw every trick in the book at Kovalev, and Hopkins has been in the game long enough to have written a few of them.
Heck, he’s probably invented some we haven’t even seen yet.
But Kovalev’s first concern should be the pace of the fight. Hopkins isn’t the fighter he once was. Sure, he’s still great, but he hides his diminished physicality by setting a slow-as-molasses pace.
He does this a few different ways.
First, Hopkins uses outstanding footwork. He moves his opponents where he wants them, and he slides enough laterally to befuddle them into being passive. It’s hard to hit someone when they won’t stand in front of you, and Hopkins never stands.
Next, Hopkins knows how to rest and when. More importantly, he knows how to keep his opponents from resting themselves. Hopkins throws punches when his opponents least expect them. He varies his aggression and keeps his opponents guessing. When a fighter would normally retreat, Hopkins advances. When a fighter would normally advance, he retreats.
And just when you think you have all that down, he changes it back up.
Kovalev heads into the bout the younger, stronger and larger fighter. He should fight like it when the bell rings. Hopkins will move, punch and grapple with Kovalev in spurts in an effort to keep the pace slow and steady. Kovalev should pay no attention to any of it. He should keep his hands moving and be the aggressor.
Hopkins is a good puncher, but he’s never been a great one. He throws hard, accurate shots that hurt. Every fighter can do that. But Hopkins’ genius is that he lands a few that his opponents can’t see coming.
That’s not just fighting. That’s the sweet science.
Kovalev is likely to get stung by a Hopkins counterpunch more than a few times. But after the punch lands, Kovalev should remember the he’s the knockout artist.
Where some might get discouraged at getting caught clean, Kovalev should take such an affront to his offensive authority as a challenge.
Every time Hopkins lands clean, Kovalev should come right back with combinations to the head and torso. He shouldn’t worry about trying to make things pretty. Kovalev just needs to put his hands on Hopkins wherever he can find him.
“I always have bullets in my arsenal,” said Kovalev. “My hands are my weapons. It’s my weapon in the ring.”
Finally, the best attribute all superstar prizefighters possess across the board is one thing: No moment is too large for them.
Hopkins has been in some of the biggest fights in boxing history. He’s faced superstars like Oscar De La Hoya, Roy Jones Jr. and Felix Trinidad. He’s been ready to perform in every single one. When the spotlight is on Hopkins, he’s as comfortable as he’d be shadowboxing in the ring all by his lonesome.
Kovalev has never been tested in this way. The only comparable outing he’s had to date was his previous bout against Blake Caparello. With Hopkins sitting ringside watching him fight, and knowing all he had to do to secure the Hopkins bout was win the fight, Kovalev knocked Caparello out in two rounds.
That’s good. But his nerves showed a bit, too.
Caparello knocked Kovalev down to the canvas in Round 1 with an overhand right. Was it a lucky shot? Maybe. Kovalev appeared to go down only because Caparello trapped his foot underneath his own as he landed the blow.
But if Hopkins’ face didn’t light up at the sight of that, you can be sure he took note of it in his mind in secret.
Hopkins isn’t above trying such tricks, too. And while Kovalev recovered quickly against Caparello and appeared to fight free and easy the rest of the way, he’ll need to be prepared from the opening bell against Hopkins to fight as if it is only he and Hopkins there and no one else.
And he’ll need to be prepared for anything.
Because if Kovalev can fight up to that level, if he can come to the ring calm, focused and prepared, and if he can defeat Hopkins in resounding fashion, the sky’s the limit for the hard-hitting “Krusher” from Russia.
Hopkins-Kovalev is Saturday, November 8 on HBO beginning at 10:45 p.m. ET. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand.
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