After beating Hopkins, How do you feel about Kovalev vs Andre Ward?

[!! Shawn]

Did Kovalev beating hopkins change or confirm any of your opinions on how Kovalev vs Andre Ward would go down?

Ward would take him to school. People are drastically misinterpreting tonights, results. What happened is Kovalev showed every flaw that Hopkins said he would, but Hopkins couldn't pull the trigger anymore, but still there were times when he did, and he caught Kovalev and shook him up every time. Ward can pull the trigger and is young and fresh.

Hopkins showed that the movement and rolling could diffuse all of Kovalevs aggression, because for all of the talk of Bernards chin is incredible, he didn't get hit cleanly more than a handful of times, and never while Kovalev had his feet planted.

Ward can do that too.

[Foreign Soil]

Ward would take him to school. People are drastically misinterpreting tonights, results. What happened is Kovalev showed every flaw that Hopkins said he would, but Hopkins couldn't pull the trigger anymore, but still there were times when he did, and he caught Kovalev and shook him up every time. Ward can pull the trigger and is young and fresh.

Hopkins showed that the movement and rolling could diffuse all of Kovalevs aggression, because for all of the talk of Bernards chin is incredible, he didn't get hit cleanly more than a handful of times, and never while Kovalev had his feet planted.

Ward can do that too.

Hopkins got taken to school. Listen to his post fight comments for his real interpretation of Kovalev.

Ward won't fight Kovalev. He's too good for a weight class jump.

[daggum]

Ward would take him to school. People are drastically misinterpreting tonights, results. What happened is Kovalev showed every flaw that Hopkins said he would, but Hopkins couldn't pull the trigger anymore, but still there were times when he did, and he caught Kovalev and shook him up every time. Ward can pull the trigger and is young and fresh.

Hopkins showed that the movement and rolling could diffuse all of Kovalevs aggression, because for all of the talk of Bernards chin is incredible, he didn't get hit cleanly more than a handful of times, and never while Kovalev had his feet planted.

Ward can do that too.

that's not true. kovalev wasn't in there swinging at air calzaghe style. he was hitting hopkins over and over. hopkins movement was nice but when he tried to hide behind his shoulder and come forward kovalev had the answer with the counter right hand over his shoulder. ward does the same exact thing and ward's foot movement isn't as good as hopkins to begin with. that's why he's always holding and clinching even against slow flat footed fighters. ward would get beat down if he ever awakens from his coward induced coma.

[!! Shawn]

Hopkins got taken to school. Listen to his post fight comments for his real interpretation of Kovalev.

Ward won't fight Kovalev. He's too good for a weight class jump.

All Bernard said is that Kovalev got out before he could return fire in the form of "He used his feet to create space after throwing his combinations" Thats just Bernards way of saying he couldn't pull the trigger anymore. It happens to everyone, time just finally caught up with Bernard.

I am not sure how anyone can see what happened as him getting taken to school though. In what aspect of skill did Kovalev school Hopkins in?

Reality is that it was a boring fight where Bernard couldn't pull the trigger and just resorted to being cagey and slick and making Kovalev miss all night while using his movement to make sure that Kovalev could never unload with power.

[Foreign Soil]

All Bernard said is that Kovalev got out before he could return fire in the form of "He used his feet to create space after throwing his combinations" Thats just Bernards way of saying he couldn't pull the trigger anymore. It happens to everyone, time just finally caught up with Bernard.

I am not sure how anyone can see what happened as him getting taken to school though. In what aspect of skill did Kovalev school Hopkins in?

Reality is that it was a boring fight where Bernard couldn't pull the trigger and just resorted to being cagey and slick and making Kovalev miss all night while using his movement to make sure that Kovalev could never unload with power.

Hopkins would've made an excuse if he could, but he got so soundly outboxed that he couldn't come up with an excuse while keeping a straight face.

Kovalev nearly killed Hopkins in the 12th. His timing was on point, picked Hopkins apart, got a perfectly timed KD, jabbed the body, hit Hopkins in the clinch - basically in every possible scenario Kovalev had an answer for B Hop's moves and hurt him badly for it. Schooling 101.

[FeFist]

I think Ward should be licking his chops right now. He wants to step into the limelight; well, here is the opportunity. Hopkins wouldn't fight him, but he now has the chance of beating the guy who beat the guy.

He should move up to 175lb, have a couple of tune up fights and let Kov's reputation as a beast grow. A year from now should be the fight. In the event that he wins, he could move on to beating the piece of vile scum from Canada.

[sunny31]

It's funny to me how quickly people bandwagon. Ward on another stratosphere to a 49 year old Hopkins. If you ignore the lack of activity Ward has been the best fighter in the World for a while, and if not the best a close second to Mayweather. He is an incredible fighter, and it amazes me how quickly and often this is overlooked.

What did we learn about Kovalev? He is the real deal a bonafide world champion who is now a deserving unified champion. Now I would like to see him consolidate his position by fighting some big names from 168-175 in their prime, the top of that list being Stevenson. Then we will see if he is the type of fighter who demands a place in top 10 p4p which is his next measuring stick.

Now saying all of that, sitting here today I would favour Ward in this fight in an ideal world where both fighters are prepared and ready for the fight. That would be in a scenario where Ward shakes off the ring rust and moves up to 175 and has at least ONE high level fight there, and Kovalev gets a couple of more high level wins and experience. I expect the fight to be competitive with both fighters getting hurt, but Ward is considerably sharper and can fight well at all distances and his speed and timing will kill Kovalev at times in the fight. Kovalev will have his moments and will hurt Ward and could stop him if he catches him, but I wouldn't bet on the stoppage. I think Kovalev's strength will start to come through in the latter part of the fight but Ward hangs on for a UD. I just think Ward is too sharp and does everything better than Kovalev, he does everything better than most fighters.

This is a super fight that I hope happens, we haven't really seen Ward in a competitive fight and this would definitely be that in my opinion. Kovalev's power will keep Ward honest and wear him down through the fight I just see Ward pulling through.

By the way those of you saying GGG handles Ward...please.

[Thomas_Hearns]

I feel that Ward needs a tuneup fight against Pascal or any former 175 champion before he fight kovalev.

[bojangles1987]

It's one of the absolute best fights in the sport, and I no longer feel that confident about Ward winning. I'd probably still pick him, but I wouldn't feel good about it.

[GhostBlade]

Why should Ward fight Kovalev in the first place? Kovalev is too big, strong and has a long reach. There isn't anything Ward can really do to beat Kovalev besides try to land a haymaker on the chin when Kovalev is coming in. Kovalev is a big light heavyweight while Ward looks like a middleweight and not even a big puncher. Kovalev probably wouldn't hold back like he seemed to do against Hopkins so the results would be much brutal. Kovalev vs Stevenson is the only fight at this point that makes sense. Golovkin vs Ward makes a lot more sense than Kovalev vs Ward.