By Jim Dower: WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (25-0-1, 23 KOs) did his part to earn his unification match against IBF/WBA light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (55-6-2, 32 KOs) by crushing challenger Blake Caparello (19-1-1, 6 KOs) by a 2nd round knockout last Saturday night at the Revel Resort, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA.
Now that Kovalev’s light work is out of the way, his unification bout against the 49-year-old Hopkins will be taking place on HBO on November 8th, either in Atlantic City, New Jersey at the Boardwalk Hall, or at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, according to Dan Rafael.
Hopkins signed the contract for the fight last Friday and the fight is a done deal. The only thing that needs to be determined is the venue.
“He [Hopkins] can teach me because he is very experienced,” Kovalev said to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. “I am not scared to fight him, even to lose to him. He’s an ‘Alien.’ But I am the ‘Krusher,’ and I will send him to mars.”
You have to see this as being a potentially difficult one for Hopkins, because even if he wins, he’s probably going to need to go the full 12 round distance to get the victory. Hopkins hasn’t knocked out an opponent since he stopped Oscar De La Hoya in the 9th round in their fight in 2004. De La Hoya was moving up in weight to face the bigger Hopkins at middleweight, and he didn’t have the size to fight at a high level in that weight class.
Kovalev is a natural light heavyweight and a lot younger and stronger than Hopkins. Even if Hopkins beats Kovalev, he’s going to need to take 12 rounds of heavy shots from him. As good as Hopkins’ defense is, he’s not going to be able to make Kovalev miss for 12 rounds. He’s going to get hit with a lot of solid blows to the head and body.
No one has ever gone the full 12 round distance with Kovalev during his career, and it’s going to be asking a lot of the nearly 50-year-old Hopkins to withstand 12 punishing rounds to beat Kovalev by a decision. This isn’t Kelly Pavlik. Kovalev is a better version of Pavlik with more close range power. Pavlik was a long range puncher and didn’t have an inside game like Kovalev.
You’ve got to give Hopkins a lot of credit for taking this fight, because he’s not fought a good fighter since his loss to Chad Dawson in 2012. He’s won his last three fights against Karo Murat, Beibut Shumenov and Tavoris Cloud, but those are flawed fighters that aren’t anywhere near the same talent level that Kovalev has.
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