By Dan Ambrose: Lou Dibella, the promoter of recent Sergey Kovalev (25-0-1, 23 KOs) knockout victim Blake Caparello, says that IBF/WBA light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (55-6-2, 32 KOs) has a definite chance of beating Kovalev in their planned fight on November 8th.
Dibella was really confident about Caparello’s chances of beating Kovalev due to his Caparello’s boxing skills and airtight defense, but Kovalev quickly overpowered him in scoring a 2nd round TKO last Saturday night in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
That win opened the eyes of Dibella, but obviously not quite enough for him to not give Hopkins a chance at beating Kovalev.
“Kovalev has dynamite in his fists but Hopkins is such a clever and cagey boxer that he definitely has a chance,” Dibella said via the Dailymail.co.uk.
Hopkins will no doubt be trying to outbox Kovalev in the same way that Caparello attempted to do. Kovalev was able to go to the body of Caparello to hurt him bad with a right hand in the 2nd round. The fight was for intents and purposes over at that point, because Caparello couldn’t stay on his feet for long after he got up from the first knockdown. Hopkins has a great chin, and he’s never been knocked out before during his career.
Hopkins also never faced a puncher like Kovalev before. The biggest puncher that Hopkins has fought during his career was Kelly Pavlik back in 2008. Hopkins was younger than, and facing a limited slugger with an easy to nullify offensive attack. Pavlik was an attacking type of fighter like Kovalev, and he never threw sustained combinations like Kovalev.
We saw Hopkins recently fight Karo Murat last October. The 5’10” Murat was simply too small to compete with Hopkins in a serious way, but he did show that Hopkins is vulnerable to being attacked in a sustained manner by someone throwing nonstop punches. Murat had Hopkins backed up to the ropes for much of the fight, and he lumped up his face pretty bad.
If Kovalev attacks Hopkins in the same way that Murat did, we could see a knockout, especially if Hopkins retreats to the ropes the same way he did against Murat. Hopkins, at 49, is no longer able to stay in the center of the ring for the full 3 minutes of each round. He needs to rest his aging legs by leaning against the ropes the way that many older fighters do. If Hopkins does this against Kovalev for any length of time in the fight, we’ll likely see Hopkins take a beating and get knocked out.
That’s just the way it is. If Hopkins goes to the ropes, he’s going to get chopped apart by Kovalev. And I’m not sure that Hopkins is young enough to stay in the center of the ring more for more than a minute without needing to go back to the ropes to rest his weary legs.
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