Hopkins Giving Tips To Ibragimov For Beating Klitschko

Former middleweight/light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins reportedly stopped by the undefeated World Boxing Organization Sultan Ibragimov’s (22-0, 17 KOs) training camp to give him some helpful tips on how to beat Wladimir Klitschko (49-3, 44 KOs), the International Boxing Federation heavyweight champion, whom Ibragimov will be fighting in a unification bout on February 23, at Madison Square Garden, in New York City, New York. Ibragimov, 32, is a heavy underdog going into his bout with Wladimir, and needs any kind of advice he can get at this point.

It’s unclear what advice it was that Hopkins gave Ibragimov, but if it’s anything like Hopkins’ own fighting style, it involves staying mostly on the outside, and then coming in every once and while with quick flurries followed by a clinch. Hopkins should have saved his breath, as that’s the way Ibragimov fights all the time. It’s not pleasing to watch, to say the least, but it’s been effective against the mostly limited opposition that Ibragimov has fought thus far in his career. It remains to be seen how Ibragimov will defeat Klitschko’s hard jab and his left hook-right hand combination.

Clearly, he’s going to have to use a lot of side to side movement, much like Charles Shufford used effectively against Wladimir in August 2001. Though Shufford didn’t win any of the rounds in the fight, and was ultimately stopped in the 6th round, he lasted five rounds beyond what he might normally have should he have tried to trade with Wladimir in the first round. Ibragimov will be trying to frustrate Klitschko early, with hopes of lasting long enough to eventually tire him out and stop him in brutal fashion like Lamon Brewster, Corrie Sanders and Ross Puritty did before him.