Comments Thread For: Stevenson: Hopkins Said He'll Fight Me After Mandatory

[Nomadic]

One punch is not going to work on the Alien.

[MrClutch85]

I hope this fight happens

[Tobi.G]

he fought calzaghe

The early Calzaghe was a hard hitter but the late Calzaghe was a flurry fighter without much weight behind his punches because he had problems with his hands. He did not put much power behind his shots in his latest fights.

[-Kev-]

Hopkins/Schaefer want Stevenson, HBO declined the fight. Hopkins is on Showtime.

[ИATAS]

The early Calzaghe was a hard hitter

[-Kev-]

I really think Hopkins - as great as he is - would not be able anymore to survive 12 rounds against beasts like Stevenson or Kovalev. Hopkins has never fought hard punchers like that in his long career and these guys are physically verry strong too. The last hard puncher Hopkins faced was Antonio Tarver but that guy was already past his prime and weight drained. So i really believe Stevenson and Kovalev are to much for the almost 50 year old legend. I mean these guys are not only big punchers, they are also pretty fast and have ability. Cloud was only a B-Level puncher without ability and Dawson had not much problems with Hopkins. You know what Stevenson did to Dawson right? i know Styles make Fights, but still....

Tito Trinidad, Kelly Pavlik, and Tavoris Cloud were all hard punchers "like that". They were hard enough punchers to be favored over Hopkins to win by KO.

Taylor was a dangerous puncher, he hurt Pavlik and Froch the worst in their career.

And finally, Roy Jones Jr was 21-0 with 20KO's when Hopkins fought him. His TKO victories over Jorge Vaca and Glenn Thomas showed what punching power he had. Especially Glenn Thomas. Thomas went on to lose decisions against hard/good punchers like Toney, Nunn, McCallum, Hill. So Hopkins was facing a pretty hard puncher in Jones.

[cupocity303]

I really think Hopkins - as great as he is - would not be able anymore to survive 12 rounds against beasts like Stevenson or Kovalev. Hopkins has never fought hard punchers like that in his long career and these guys are physically verry strong too. The last hard puncher Hopkins faced was Antonio Tarver but that guy was already past his prime and weight drained. So i really believe Stevenson and Kovalev are to much for the almost 50 year old legend. I mean these guys are not only big punchers, they are also pretty fast and have ability. Cloud was only a B-Level puncher without ability and Dawson had not much problems with Hopkins. You know what Stevenson did to Dawson right? i know Styles make Fights, but still....

Other then struggling to hit Hopkins clean or to outbox him. No, he had no problems at all.

[Citizen Koba]

It's possible, but GYM may be forced into making a choice between SHO and HBO, and there's no denying their stronger affiliation with HBO.

That said, GYM have a sufficiently strong stable at 175 to be able to bargain pretty hard; to switch affiliations would in one swoop give SHO some of the top names at 175 and a few other fighters at 160+ which would broaden their options greatly. Given this HBO might have no choice but to show some flexibility.

Myself, I think Bernard's got his promoters hat on and is playing a little chess. I think he doesn't really want to fight either Stevenson or Kovalev but knows that he's still a big enough draw to promise a lucrative fight.

Bringing Shumenov on board as well suddenly puts GYM in the position of having the posibility of two title fights with SHO, as opposed to one probably riskier title fight with HBO.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see how this one pans out, but I'm guessing GYMs longer term interest lies with HBO - Bhop for all his achievements does not have long left, and Shumenov is not at the level of Kovalev or Stevenson. Beyond these two, SHO have very little to offer at LHW.

Still, don't get me wrong, I would love to see a Hopkins - Stevenson fight, I'd just prefer Stevenson - Kovalev.

[MDPopescu]

If B-Hop is to fight ever again, he would cross the Pond... He told that already...