Roy Jones is in his third camp with Jean Pascal, who challenges three-belt light heavyweight titleholder Sergey Kovalev this Saturday night in Montreal. While Jones has said he’s been working on Pascal’s stamina, there are other ways the former champion has improved. “Grown a whole lot,” Jones said. “A lot of ways: maturity, patience. Patience is the biggest factor I’m bringing. That’s the biggest improvement he’s made.”
Bernard Hopkins, 49-years-old, finally looked like a fighter who is rapidly approaching the age of 50, according to trainer John David Jackson. Last Saturday night at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, Jackson's boxer, Sergey Kovalev (26-0-1, 23KOs), dominated Hopkins over twelve rounds to unify the WBO/WBA/IBF light heavyweight titles.
Sergey Kovalev has been a consistently solid draw for HBO Boxing in 2014. Bernard Hopkins has always served as a ratings magnet for the network. Naturally, their three-belt light heavyweight unification bout on November 8 in Atlantic City proved to be a smash hit with home viewers. A peak average of 1.328 million viewers tuned in for what became a tour-de-force performance by Kovalev, dropping the legendary Hopkins in the opening round en route to a dominant 12-round shutout to earn accolades as the best light heavyweight on the planet. The telecast peaked at 1.397 home viewers. Both numbers are good for the second highest rated bout of 2014.
Atlantic City, Boardwalk Hall, New Jersey - Bill "Two Scoops" Emes catches up with Main Events CEO Kathy Duva to discuss Sergey "Krusher" Kovalev's twelve round unanimous decision victory over Bernard "The Alien" Hopkins to unify the WBO/IBF/WBA light heavyweight titles. Duva talks about what this victory does for the career of Kovalev, what might be next for her fighter, a potential fight with Adonis Stevenson, a potential fight with Gennady "GGG" Golovkin, and more.
Bernard Hopkins was far behind on the scorecards and needed a knockout to beat Sergey Kovalev. And while Hopkins had landed a good shot on Kovalev earlier in the round, Kovalev would hurt him in return. Whereas others might’ve taken that as a sign that the knockout wouldn’t come and it was better just to make it to the final bell, Hopkins said that he couldn’t settle for that.”
The pre-fight report card began with a simple premise: A significantly younger fighter of the highest quality, in his prime, should never lose to a 49-year old man. Not even when that 49-year old is Bernard Hopkins. Saturday night was, for those who relish the storytelling aspect of the sport, the story of whether Bernard Hopkins could continue to defy time. For those with less romantic inclinations, it was about a question. Was Sergey Kovalev as good as he’s looked to date?
Atlantic City, Boardwalk Hall - All Sergey Kovalev, who was patient and kept distance all fight. Bernard Hopkins managed to land an average. of just 5 of 16 punches per round. Kovalev landed 38 punches in round twelve, the most landed by a Hopkins opponent in 41 of his fights tracked by CompuBox. Kovalev won a lopsided twelve round unanimous decision to unify the WBO/WBA/IBF light heavyweight titles.
Bernard Hopkins was already quite familiar with Sergey Kovalev’s trainer before he stepped into the ring with the light heavyweight titleholder. After all, Hopkins had stopped John David Jackson — who held belts in two divisions — way back in 1997. And after Jackson retired, he worked as a member of Hopkins’ team. Hopkins had taken aim at this before the bout.
Sergey Kovalev was intelligent in the way he fought Bernard Hopkins on Saturday night, smartly using his size and employing a strategy that kept him in control throughout the bout, according to Hopkins. “I couldn’t overpower him. I just felt like a middleweight in there, maybe a super middleweight in there, against a cruiserweight,” Hopkins said at the post-fight press conference. “I don’t know what it looked like to y’all, but I couldn’t get in the range that I wanted to get into. And the range was the length, whether it was his height, his reach, his stepping back, because he was stepping back when I wanted to engage. And that’s smart, because we are taught not to engage because your opponent want to engage. You fight when you want to fight. You make him fight when you want to fight. And that’s part of the strategy of any seasoned fighter.
by David P. Greisman - All good things truly do come to an end. For year after year after year, long after he left prison as an ex-con and vowed never to return, Bernard Hopkins defied expectations, defied his advancing age and the rigors on the body and mind typically associated with the passage of time. He defied his doubters who thought that he was done after losing his middleweight championship to Jermain Taylor in 2005, thought that he was too small to move up from 160 all the way to 175. He upset Antonio Tarver in 2006 to become the new champion in this second division He defied his doubters who thought he was done after losing this championship to Joe Calzaghe in 2008, dominating a younger power-puncher in Kelly Pavlik and then staring with disdain at row after row of ringside media members who had predicted his demise. By 2011 he was champion again, at the unheard age of 46 years old, winning an easy decision over Jean Pascal. And he defied his doubters even after he lost his championship one last time to Chad Dawson in 2012. By 2013, at 48 years old, he had begun one more campaign at ruling a division where many of the opponents were naturally heavier and all of his opponents would, naturally, be younger. He won a world title against Tavoris Cloud, defended it against Karo Murat, captured a second title from Beibut Shumenov and then set himself up, at 49 years old and just months from his 50th birthday, for a big fight — either against champion Adonis Stevenson or undefeated titleholder Sergey Kovalev.