An old middleweight fighting at light heavyweight against the most devastating puncher in the division since Bob Foster terrified that weight class a lifetime ago, Bernard Hopkins was a 2-1 underdog. Kovalov beat the old man up for 12 rounds but could not put him away. The commentary for this fight was precious, with Roy Jones Junior at his most politically incorrect.
Although Hopkins ended Kovalov’s KO streak, he was not able to pull off an upset, thanks primarily to the brilliant coaching of trainer John David Jackson, the mastermind sought out by a number of Eastern European fighters, and a former victim of Hopkins as well. To defeat Hopkins’ ‘Philly shell’ guard Jackson trained Kovalov to fence with his jab from long range on light feet, and to punch the body and shoulder.
Hopkins, for his part gave a clinic on how to avoid the KO against a monster puncher who is beating you up. For the most part it was a bigger, younger, faster, stronger fighter taking it to a crafty old fighter. If this had been a No Decision Era fight we may have been treated to 20, 30, or even 40 rounds. These guys were in incredible shape and relaxed. It lacked fireworks until the end. But Kovalov was so dangerous that there was exited tension throughout as we wondered if Hopkins was going to suffer the first KO of his storied career every time he got caught flush with the kind of shots that have been putting top ten young men to sleep.
The importance of the fight was how Hopkins made it, and the hint he dropped that he plans on unifying the division by beating the phony champions who are hiding from Kovalov and then presumably sacrificing himself on this same Russian altar again. For you MMA people, this is what your sport has done for boxing. Thanks to the example set by MMA boxing fans are willing to watch a tough fighter who does not have a perfect record, and have scant patience for protected titlists. The sportsmanship between Hopkins and his conqueror is also something that has rubbed off on boxing, something that it used to have until the advent of Ali and his pro wrestling antics, and is now finally recovering.
