Prime B-Hop vs Kovalev?

[Ray-boom]

Prime 160 Hopkins gets his ass whipped by prime 175 Kovalev.

Exactly. Hopkins pound for pound in his prime is better in my opinion than Kovalev ,but Hopkins prime was at a 160 pounds. So match that smaller Hopkins verse prime Kovalev at 175 and you have a Kovalev victory if that made any sense.

[boliodogs]

It's much closer but Kovalev still wins. Hopkins is great but so is Kovalev and he won every round of the Hopkins fight easily. Remember Hopkins fought at 160 until he was over 40. Hopkins is a good sized middleweight, not a light heavyweight. Kovalev has always been a big and extremely hard hitting and powerful light heavyweight and that would make the difference. His size, strength and great power combined with his ring IQ take him to a close win over the great but smaller Hopkins.

[Daud]

Kovalev is one of my favorite fighters but a young Hopkins would have been too much for him.

[Scipio2009]

I've been watchin a lot of Bernard Hopkins lately and although I rate Kovalev highly; I believe a prime Hopkins would have beat him. What do you guys think?

Hopkins faced Kovalev at 49 years of age, yet was still able to go a hard 12 rounds, nullifying Kovalev in most spots, with his inability to be active hurting him more than anything.

44 year old Hopkins beats Kovalev pretty decisively.

[Redd Foxx]

Prime Hopkins was so different than the guy we see now. Quick, bold, and clever without the need to rely so heavily on rule bending as a crutch. I see prime Hopkins leaving Kovalev confused and one step behind. The only advantage Kovalev would have would be strength/size but it wouldn't matter as prime Hopkins was quick enough to evade anyone of Kovalev's speed. I have a hard time imagining anything other than Bhop by decision.

[Luilun]

A Prime Hopkins win 3 rounds instead of losing all 12 get over it White Europeans are better fighters than blacks from 160 up

[DreamerUSA]

Prime Hopkins was so different than the guy we see now. Quick, bold, and clever without the need to rely so heavily on rule bending as a crutch. I see prime Hopkins leaving Kovalev confused and one step behind. The only advantage Kovalev would have would be strength/size but it wouldn't matter as prime Hopkins was quick enough to evade anyone of Kovalev's speed. I have a hard time imagining anything other than Bhop by decision.

Pretty much this. Bhop of today is nothing like he was back in the day fighting on Tuesday Night Fights. The only person able to do anything to stop him back then was a prime RJR.

[SalimShady1212]

A Prime Hopkins win 3 rounds instead of losing all 12 get over it White Europeans are better fighters than blacks from 160 up

I live in England (Europe), there's no correlation between geography and success lol. No more silly hypothesis lol

[HEND]

Kovalev because prime B-Hop was a middleweight.
P4P wise I would pick the prime B-Hop though

[HEND]

A Prime Hopkins win 3 rounds instead of losing all 12 get over it White Europeans are better fighters than blacks from 160 up

Yeah just see the history of heavyweight division so many white European legends. Tyson, Liston, Holmes, Frazier, Foreman, Lewis, Johnson, Ali...
And in lhw division those Russian dudes Jones and Toney...