As we speak marks the tenth anniversary of a battle that, upon getting in, loads of individuals had a real concern for one of many fighters concerned. For years, the good Bernard Hopkins had managed to defy Father Time, the Philly ring common scoring vastly spectacular wins over a lot youthful and extra harmful fighters like Kelly Pavlik, Jean Pascal, and Tavoris Cloud. However this time, in getting in with “The Krusher,” the omnipotent Sergey Kovalev, Hopkins, amazingly the holder of two main belts at 175 kilos at age 49, was risking issues.
Hopkins, who was 55-6-2 and coming off a choice win over Beibut Shumenov, could be pushing his abilities and luck too far towards the Russian beast.
Kovalev was 31 years of age on the time of the battle, and he was unbeaten at 25-0-1. Worryingly for Hopkins and his followers, Kovalev had run over his earlier 9 opponents whereas he had scored a KO in every of his fights because the WBO light-heavyweight champion. Kovalev was going to inflict some severe hurt on the just about 50-year-old, so the pondering went in some quarters.
The battle, dubbed “Alien Vs. Krusher,” came about at Boardwalk Corridor in Atlantic Metropolis.
With loads of followers braced for one thing violent, we as a substitute noticed a one-sided battle that was largely devoid of motion or violence. Kovalev dropped Hopkins within the opening spherical, this with a proper hand to the pinnacle, and from right here on in, Hopkins boxed ultra-cautiously, defensively, some would say scared. However Hopkins needed to be sensible, or else, and he was, however Kovalev dominated each minute of all 12 rounds.
Hopkins threw little or no, his getting old legs carrying him to security in every session. Ultimately, Kovalev was denied the KO, however he triumphed by lopsided scores of 120-106, and 120-107, 120-107. Kovalev was now a three-belt world champion, and he had confirmed to the boxing world that Hopkins was very a lot human.
Hopkins had once more dared to be nice, however he in some way fell quick on this event. But it surely didn’t/doesn’t matter; Hopkins had lengthy since cemented his place within the historical past books. Hopkins might have gone out a winner, both after his win over Pascal, after his win over Cloud, or after his win over Shumenov. Ultimately, Hopkins did push his luck by going through Kovalev.
Amazingly, although, B-Hop nonetheless wasn’t achieved, with him having yet another battle, this towards Joe Smith Jr a bit of over two years later. Smith Jr managed to do one thing Kovalev couldn’t do, sending Hopkins tumbling out of the ropes, “The Alien” being stopped within the eighth spherical.
Kovalev dominated at 175 kilos till November 2016, when he was crushed by Andre Ward. Kovalev misplaced the rematch with Ward, but he, like Hopkins, saved going, with “Krusher” taking his flip preventing as an previous man. Kovalev final fought in Could of this 12 months at age 41.
