Can Shumenov upset Hopkins?

[MDPopescu]

Do you think they are bringing Shumenov to beat B-Hop? Cui prodest?

[mathed]

Yea...

Kind of reminds me of klitschko.

Uses his left hand well to gauge range.

Uses his feet extremely well for defence.

Uses his height and reach well.

But the problem is, the couple clips I saw , his opponents weren't throwing manny punches so I couldn't see how he reacts to that.

Shumenov can't fight on the inside. He has an amateur boxing style. Doesn't commit to his punches. Priority is to score a point and quickly get out of the way of a return.

I think Hopkins should pressurise shumenov like he did in the pascal fights but not for the same reason . He pressed pascal because that made pascal use unnecessary lateral movement as he often does , causing him to tire late.

With shumenov , Hopkins is gonna swarm in with a right hand , chin down, and clinch and work on the inside.

Depends a lot of how lenient the ref is on hopkins on the inside...

I completely agree. He could get to Hopkins by boxing but BHOP's dirty tactics on the inside would take Shumenov out of his game plan to a big degree. The guy is a very "clean" fighter, the dirty tactics will mess him all up...I can see him looking to the ref for help many times during the fight why Hop eats him alive.

[ShoulderRoll]

Do you think they are bringing Shumenov to beat B-Hop? Cui prodest?

That doesn't matter. They didn't bring Jhonny Gonzalez to beat Mares, or Trout to beat Cotto.

[MDPopescu]

That doesn't matter. They didn't bring Jhonny Gonzalez to beat Mares, or Trout to beat Cotto.

With Gonzalez was pretty different...

B-Hop is a LEGEND -- you don't ruin a legend just like that... You maybe bring Andre Ward and organize a pass over...

[Cuban Linx]

lol Shumenov is the worst belt holder in that division by a mile.

He couldn't even beat Campillo without the help of judges. He's going to get smothered and shut out. Unless of course Hopkins finally shows his age.

[jas]

lol Shumenov is the worst belt holder in that division by a mile.

He couldn't even beat Campillo without the help of judges. He's going to get smothered and shut out. Unless of course Hopkins finally shows his age.

fighters dont get old overnight, they get old in the gym......

[NearHypnos]

I'd have to rewatch his fights but as far as I can remember he is very mechanical / robotic. Won't be able to reach the craftier Hopkins IMO.

I hope I am wrong though! I just don't see it!!!

Gotta agree with this.

Still.. Shumenov seems powerful and Hopkins is old and took some ounches last fight from someone who he wouldnt have taken em from before so who knows. Age ALWAYS catches up. We'll see

[Sugar Adam Ali]

Yes he has a chance to beat Hopkins, dude is 49, he is due to get beat

[Citizen Koba]

Depends on whether BHop starts to show his age. Shumenov is strong but really predictable IMO..he does show occassional moments and actually looked pretty decent in Campillo I (or against sub-par opposition).

Beibut has actually fought less frequently and against significantly worse opposition than Hopkins since... ahem.. 'winning' his belt, and whilst he may be relatively sound technically, his ring IQ is close to Zero, whereas BHops is off the charts.

Of course it's remarkable that this discussion is even taking place since Hopkins is quite easily old enough to have sired Shumenov, but nonetheless I have to favour Hopkins in this fight - Shumenov might be physically strong enough, and I think Hopkins would be unwise to try to bring the same kinda fight as he did against Murat (how did that farce even happen) but I simply see him tying Shumenov up and grinding out an uninspiring points win.

Unusual thing about this fight is that neither Hopkins or Shumenov have any significant financial incentive to make this fight - both, as far as I'm able to glean, are already very wealthy guys and would appear to be chasing this simply for the glory.