The Hottest Boxing Storylines for the Week of November 10
Bernard Hopkins finally made his date with Father Time on Saturday night, and it came in the form of Russian power puncher Sergey Kovalev.
Kovalev dropped Hopkins in the opening stanza and dominated him the rest of the way to win a shutout unanimous decision and unify three-fourths of the light heavyweight championship at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Now, the fallout.
Did the old master finally lose his battle with age? Or was Kovalev just better?
Hopkins was noncommittal about his future plans after the fight, but should he just ride off into the sunset and call it a career?
Or is there more fight and fights left in him?
Kovalev's statement victory leaves him with all but the lineal and WBC Light Heavyweight Championships, but do they matter, and is he officially the man at 175 pounds?
All that, plus a look ahead to Wladimir Klitschko's heavyweight title defense this Saturday on HBO and the current status of the Miguel Cotto and Canelo Alvarez negotiations.
These are the hottest boxing storylines for the week of November 10.
Did Hopkins Get Old, or Was Kovalev Just Better?
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Kovalev was dominant on Saturday night, and there really isn’t any other way to describe it.
He made Hopkins look every second of his 49 years for every second of every round.
Literally.
And that’s not to take anything away from The Krusher or his well-deserved victory, because while Hopkins is old—for a fighter—Kovalev succeeded where so many others had failed.
He made Hopkins look old.
Kovalev had the perfect game plan and executed it with ruthless efficiency.
He didn’t make any mistakes or leave any openings for Hopkins to turn the bout into the type of rough, dirty fight that could have pulled the Russian off his game.
Patiently stalking, Kovalev remained within himself at all times, forcing Hopkins into the ropes and unloading with the type of shots that you could spend 499 years in a boxing ring and never see.
Hopkins has never been known as a high-volume puncher—his style has always been subtle, setting traps and outsmarting his foes—but on this night, he just couldn’t pull the trigger. He connected on just 65 shots over the 12 rounds, according to CompuBox via ESPN, and threw a paltry 196 punches.
He took a hellacious beating in the final round, and it's a testament to his greatness that he was able to withstand the onslaught.
Some will immediately conclude that he got old(er) overnight, but that’s completely unfair to Kovalev, who had a fair bit of say in why Hopkins' hands remained pressed firmly in front of his face.
He was too busy making sure he didn’t eat any more colossal right hands, and you can’t blame him.
On this night, as even Hopkins conceded post-fight, Kovalev was just the better man.
Should Hopkins Soldier On?
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It seems ridiculous to be sitting here right now and say that Hopkins has nothing left to prove in the sport, because that statement operated with equal validity more than a decade ago.
There is no question that Hopkins’ all-time great credentials, historical significance and legacy have been advanced by his remarkable post-40 run, but if he had quit after unifying the middleweight titles, he’d still have gone into the Hall of Fame.
Hopkins was reluctant to discuss his future plans in post-fight comments to HBO’s Max Kellerman—he called it 50-50 whether or not he’d continue his career—but the obvious question at this point is: Why?
What’s left to prove?
He has already defied the odds countless times, set all sorts of records and stamped out promising careers. He came up short in a fight against an opponent who is universally recognized as one—if not the—most dangerous men in the entire sport.
That should be good enough for anyone, but it might not be enough for Hopkins.
And, if you’ve ever spoken with him or had the opportunity to pick his brain just a bit, you’d understand what he’s probably thinking.
Hopkins will hit that milestone on January 15 of next year, and had he beaten Kovalev, he’d have become the first 50-year-old man to hold a world championship.
A Kovalev rematch is out of the question; he'd have to be completely off his rocker to do that again, but Adonis Stevenson is still out there, holding the WBC and lineal light heavyweight titles to boot.
Would anyone, even in light of Kovalev’s dominance, dismiss Hopkins’ chances against Stevenson out of hand?
Stevenson will defend against an overmatched foe in December, but having shown no desire to face Kovalev, you’d have to expect he’d be open to a lucrative showdown with Hopkins next year, right?
Remember, boxing is the theater of the absurd, and anything that can, will and does happen—so long as the money and demand are present.
For what it’s worth, in his post-fight comments on HBO, Kovalev picked Hopkins to beat Stevenson, should they fight.
Can Anyone Dispute That Kovalev Is the Man at 175 Pounds?
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You can try, but good luck to you pushing that boulder up the hill.
Stevenson may hold the lineal championship and the lone sanctioning organization belt outside of Kovalev’s grasp, but there is no doubt which man is the baddest dog in the 175-pound yard.
Kovalev came, saw and conquered Hopkins, beating him like he stole something over 12 one-sided rounds and saddling him with the worst defeat of his legendary career.
Stevenson, since leaving HBO and Kovalev in the lurch to sign with Al Haymon and move over to Showtime, has, in the meantime, developed a reputation as a guy who finds his way out of—rather than into—big fights.
Instead of facing Kovalev or Hopkins, the lineal champion will defend against the unknown Dmitry Sukhotsky on Dec. 19 in Quebec.
And that’s a shame, because he had his chances to secure significant fights.
Whether contracts were signed or not and even if he was within his rights, he walked away from a fight with Kovalev and compounded the mistake by not sealing the deal with Hopkins before he could take the walk back over to HBO.
But that’s all boxing politics.
Kovalev is just a better fighter.
It's as simple as that.
He’s the man at 175 pounds until someone proves otherwise, and if Stevenson disputes that, he should pick up the phone.
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Will Klitschko Make It 17 Straight?
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Klitschko returns to the ring on Saturday in Germany, defending his heavyweight crown for what he hopes will be the 17th time against undefeated Bulgarian challenger Kubrat Pulev.
It’s a testament to the largely irrelevant nature of the heavyweight division these days that this fight isn’t receiving much real attention among American fans.
HBO decided to pick it up and broadcast it beginning at 4:45 p.m. ET on Saturday afternoon, but that late push might not be enough to draw in a large amount of viewers.
Heavyweight championship fights were once sports and not just boxing events, but the lack of real challengers, combined with Klitschko’s safety-first style, has eroded interest over the years.
And that’s unfortunate, because Pulev might just be the most talented and dangerous fighter Klitschko has had to navigate during his long run at the top of boxing’s big boys.
Pulev was a highly decorated amateur fighter who won two gold medals in European amateur competitions before turning pro. He’s won his first 22 fights, demonstrating solid technical boxing ability.
He earned his shot—which is more than can be said for so many others—by taking a clear decision from veteran American heavyweight Tony Thompson, who was coming off back-to-back knockouts of once-promising British heavyweight David Price.
Now, it’s one thing to beat or even dominate low-level or past-their-prime European fighters and another thing to stare down the heavyweight champion of the world.
Klitschko deserves every benefit of the doubt, and Pulev, despite being better than Alex Leapai and Francesco Pianeta, remains a huge underdog.
Is Cotto vs. Canelo Going to Happen Next Year as Planned?
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At the risk of alienating Floyd Mayweather’s rabid fanbase, the biggest 2015 fights that have a realistic chance of happening have nothing to do with the pound-for-pound king.
In fact, one of them involves two of his vanquished foes.
Funny how boxing works, isn’t it?
Steve Kim of BoxingScene.com reports that preliminary meetings are underway to match newly crowned middleweight champion Cotto with Mexican superstar Canelo—likely on Cinco de Mayo weekend 2015.
The fight would be the first huge pay-per-view collaboration between Bob Arum’s Top Rank—which promotes Cotto—and Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions—which promotes Canelo and recently brought him back to HBO—since the two promoters reconciled earlier this year.
Obviously, everything remains in the early stages, and many issues need to be ironed out—weight, top-billing, money, etc.—but it seems as though all sides are optimistic that a deal can be reached.
Both Cotto and Canelo have expressed a desire for the fight. HBO is desperate to recapture the notoriety and revenue associated with Cinco de Mayo from Mayweather, and there are few—if any—more lucrative box-office draws in the sport.
So, to the question of how close are we to this fight coming to fruition, the answer is we have a ways to go yet before contracts get signed.
But if you pressed anyone close to the fighters or their teams, they’d probably tell you that, short of something completely unexpected, this fight is all but certain to happen next year.
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