By Allan Fox: WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (25-0-1, 23 KOs) is pleased that he’s got a chance to make a big name for himself in facing IBF/WBA 175lb champ Bernard Hopkins (55-6-2, 32 KOs) on 11/8 at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
This is the opportunity for the 31-year-old Kovalev to win over a lot of new fans by beating the wily old Hopkins and taking his two titles at the same time. Their fight will be televised by HBO in front of what should be a large nationwide audience.
“This will be my third fight in Atlantic City and I’m happy to be going back to Atlantic City,” said Kovalev.
A win over Hopkins will be the second biggest victory of Kovalev’s career, as last year in August, Kovalev blew out WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly in 4 rounds to capture the title. The fight was supposed to have been a competitive match-up, but it was immediately clear that Kovalev had way too much power for Cleverly and he ended up dropping him twice in the 3rd round.
At the end of the round, referee Terry O’Connor half carried Cleverly back to his stool in one of the strangest sights that you’ll ever see in the sport. O’Connor should have just waived the fight off at that point because Cleverly wasn’t going to be able to recover enough in between rounds for him to have a chance of winning the fight.
Kovalev is hoping that he can do the same thing to Hopkins that he did to Cleverly. It might not be as easy though, because Hopkins is going to be fighting defensively for as long as the fight lasts in trying to make Kovalev miss with his best shots. Kovalev might need to focus on going downstairs to Hopkins’ waist if he wants to be able to land with any consistency.
If he can get Hopkins to drop his hands to his waist, Kovalev might have an easier time connecting with something big. But then again, it might not matter. Kovalev can throw a lot of heavy head shots and enough of them will get through for him to do damage to the 49-year-old Hopkins.
You can count on Hopkins not throwing a lot of punches in this fight, because he doesn’t have the youth to let his hands go like he used to do. Kovalev will mainly have to worry about Hopkins’ pot shots.
In Hopkins’ last fight against WBA light heavyweight champion Beibut Shumenov, Hopkins was able to get the better of Shumenov in a pot shot war. Shumenov fought the wrong game plan of exchanging single shots and waiting forever to throw his single shots. Hopkins was able to beat him to the punch all night long in winning an easy 12 round decision.
Comments are closed.