Comments Thread For: Kovalev Dominates Hopkins, Unifies WBA/WBO/IBF Belts

[MDPopescu]

This guy gets it. To the several posts that blabered on about how Kovalev could have done what he did in the 12th at any point of the fight, and have gotten the KO -- wasn't it obvious that the only reason we saw what we saw in the 12th is because Hopkins chose to get off the bicycle and defense, and took a risk because he knew he was behind. Obviously it didn't work and 'The Crusher' got the better of him but all of that happened because of what Hopkins chose to do in the last 3 minutes, NOT because he was ready for the taking at any point.

Some of you guys just have a tendency to sensationalize the hell out of certain events like it's some Fantasy Marvel movie.

It was a "business-oriented" fight: GBP coming back to HBO etc... I suspect that they agreed upon a fair, clean boxing fight in order to "pass the torch" (i.e. with Kovalev agreeing not to destroy the living legend that B-Hop is; and with Hopkins agreeing not to turn the fight into an ugly one!!!) ... It resulted into a nice demonstration match -- "slick vs slick"... Yes: Kovalev proved to be a "slick" boxer-puncher, eventually... "Good old Soviet school"...

[MDPopescu]

This is true. But then there are 'fans' and Low IQ 'observers' on this forum who are misinterpreting what they saw the other way around.

I.E. Kovalev could have Ko'd him whenever he wanted to because of what he did in the 12th. Ehh, WRONG.

Certain people are ******ed and their observational skills aren't that great.

... "face first brawler"... "East European hype job"...
... The fact is that very few casual fans from the U.S. do share the necessary knowledge required in assessing "the Russian school of boxing".

(I was watching closely the Russian and Cuban boxers since the '60s, because they regularly use to beat up my compatriots at the amateurs...)

[Foreign Soil]

I said here that I hope to watch a nice friendly match -- which eventually happened in a certain extent. Kovalev showed the respect that a legend deserved... With an exception: in the 12th, as Hopkins tried to mock him up and Kovalev immediately punished him... It looked like they had a kind of "gentlemen's agreement"...

Astute observation. Kovalev has a lot of respect for Hopkins and has been waiting to showcase his skills against the legend for a while. After the first round, Kovalev, who's normally a killer in the ring, offered to touch Hopkins' gloves as if to say, "Don't worry, I respect you".. and he didn't get nasty until Hopkins tried some showboating... then it got brutal, quickly.

[NEELZ]

Kovalev had too much in every department in this fight. Hopkins did well enough in that he did not get KOed or ever appear to be on ***** street, even though he did get hit pretty clean with big shots. I am glad they didn't stop it.

But the people need to stop with calling Hopkins this "racist" now. It is over six years since his "white boy" remark. It was very ill-advised but he was wise enough to never repeat it. Now he gives nothing but respect to all his opponents. He was very gracious to Kovalev and now he's the "Alien" and aliens have graduated to another consciousness and are above the petty racism of humans.

I find the term "****** thug" to be very similar to "white boy" The people who spew the term "racist" at Hopkins use that or other similar racial terms around their family and friends. So if you and your friends and family can use those type of terms and don't consider yourselves "racist", let off of Hopkins. Just because it isn't on you tube, it's still the same.

[MDPopescu]

Astute observation. Kovalev has a lot of respect for Hopkins and has been waiting to showcase his skills against the legend for a while. After the first round, Kovalev, who's normally a killer in the ring, offered to touch Hopkins' gloves as if to say, "Don't worry, I respect you".. and he didn't get nasty until Hopkins tried some showboating... then it got brutal, quickly.

... happy that someone here understands the overall context of this fight...

[bojangles1987]

Many were underestimating Kovalev's athleticism. I remember a prediction on youtube (picking B-Hop to win) saying that Kovalev was slower than Murat/Cloud/Shumenov, ****ing delusional.

I don't think many people knew anything about Kovalev. They probably just heard the KO hype and assumed Kovalev was another Tavoris Cloud.

It's the only explanation for some of things people said about him in the lead up to this fight.

[Dachozen1]

Kovalev fought a great fight, very impressive against the 49 year old Hopkins. He will not be beaten by anybody, anytime soon. As for Hopkins, he still stood after taking Kovalev's best punches. WOW. Impressive for the 49 year old Hopkins. Hopkins actually rocked him a couple of times also, but had to be very cautious of that power.

[MDPopescu]

Kovalev had too much in every department in this fight. Hopkins did well enough in that he did not get KOed or ever appear to be on ***** street, even though he did get hit pretty clean with big shots. I am glad they didn't stop it.

But the people need to stop with calling Hopkins this "racist" now. It is over six years since his "white boy" remark. It was very ill-advised but he was wise enough to never repeat it. Now he gives nothing but respect to all his opponents. He was very gracious to Kovalev and now he's the "Alien" and aliens have graduated to another consciousness and are above the petty racism of humans.

I find the term "****** thug" to be very similar to "white boy" The people who spew the term "racist" at Hopkins use that or other similar racial terms around their family and friends. So if you and your friends and family can use those type of terms and don't consider yourselves "racist", let off of Hopkins. Just because it isn't on you tube, it's still the same.

Hopkins is the epitome for the long road a "****** thug" has to go in order to turn into a role model in the sport and society...

[SplitSecond]

i thought kovalev would win by decision(with some relatively close rds) because he'd be boxing with hopkins, thought hopkins would have retired by the 9th, but nah the old man toughed it out, damn that 12th was brutal

i was suprised with kovalevs counter-punching though, really helped him win clearly

[stellen]

Another loss to another white boy .Bernard must rue the day he said he would never lose to one of them.