Dr_Pangloss Posted November 5, 2014 Author Share Posted November 5, 2014 B-Hop v Kovalev on Saturday at 2am Will Kovalev blow him out of there with his power or will B-Hop spoil him out of the fight which we all know he is a master at Me myself I think it's a massively dangerous fight for the alien and I was shocked when he took it When the fight was made I thought to myself, wow, B-Hop is going to get destroyed. But as time has gone on I've heard a lot of knowledgeable people make the case for Hopkins. In the past I've bet against Hopkins and he has proven me wrong. I thought Tarver and Pascal would beat him and he proved me wrong, I thought his last opponent Shumenov would give him a lot of problems but he didn't. Hopkins skill seems to have good legs and shoots those very accurate snappy, short right hand counters as good as he ever did. He's still great on the inside and still a master at disrupting his opponents rhythm. Rhythm will be key in this fight, Kovalev obviously has outrageous power, but he's also a guy who can throw up to 100 punches a round, a massive number for a lightheavy weight. If Hopkins is able, through both psyching out and countering effectively, to get Kovalev to keep his hands home then the Russian will be in trouble. On the other hand if Kovalev comes out meaning business throwing lots of punches, and more importantly investing a lot to the body, then he really should be able to break Hopkins down and win the fight. Kovalev is very open, and to be honest it's not clear as to whether his chin is that great. Darnell Boone had him down (though Boone has sent a lot of top fighters to the canvas), he did get KO'd in the amateurs and he was also down in his last fight, catching a flush shot to the chin aided by Caparello standing on his lead foot (well Hopkins is the master and those sorts of tricks). Hopkins isn't a big puncher but does hit responsibly hard and throws a lot of his punches both from angles and from short distances so fully expect Kovalev to get a proper chin check. That said I have to go with Kovalev based on his power and the pace at which he fights. Even if he lowers his volume so long as he's throwing at least 50 punches around that should be enough to trouble Hopkins who does struggle with a high pace (e.g. Calzaghe). It would be interesting to see how Kovalev deals with being taken into the later rounds - it's not something he has done before and you do wonder about his stamina. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leemond2008 Posted November 5, 2014 Share Posted November 5, 2014 that's pretty much how I thought, B Hop isn't stupid and I don't think he would have took the fight unless he really believed he could win it, I have read a few people saying that Kovalevs biggest problem is going to be that he fights in straight lines and that will suit Hopkins down to the ground I was going to record it but the closer the fight is getting the more I'm looking forward to it, I recon I'll stay up and watch it live now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted November 5, 2014 Author Share Posted November 5, 2014 (edited) That's a good point about the Kovalev defence. He doesn't seem to have much head movement and as a come forward fighter you don't see any lateral movement. He does work in straight lines, he does have a habit of pulling back with his chin up in the air, and when he has his opponents on the ropes he does go all out and as a result leaves his chin right there. Hopkins can definitely roll a punch and counter instantly with a short right hand (a la James Toney), so will give him opportunities. On the other hand, unlike a lot of punchers, Kovalev does show you very high volume, and unlike a lot of punchers does not need to set his feet to throw his big shots, he has a 'mobile' power which means he can just walk forward without setting his feet for full power and still hurt you. Hopkins is a master at making punchers 'reset', in other words, as soon as a puncher sets his feet to land the big shot Hopkins is off and forces that puncher to reset his feet and lose his capacity to get full power in his punches - it's a tactic which won him the fights against Tito Trinidad, Pascal and Cloud. However with Kovalev this will not work, so I feel that Kovalev will have a relatively easy time getting to Hopkins because he has both high volume and highly mobile style in terms of his footwork. Edited November 5, 2014 by Dr_Pangloss Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 About Hopkins defying age, it's worth mentioning that he is older than Mike Tyson. He's older than Chris Eubank Sr. He's older than Gazza. He's older than Marlon Brando was when he made The Godfather. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leemond2008 Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 Ah shit cheers Rev I forgot about the fight, there's a chance I'll miss it tonight so I'll set it to record now. The boxing means I was actually 5x overbooked tonight, the boxing would have took preference over everything else if I had the choice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted November 9, 2014 Author Share Posted November 9, 2014 So Kovalev completely outboxes Hopkins showing that he has a lot of skill as well as power, he applied pressure very intelligently and out feinted Hopkins, forcing Hopkins to be the one to keep his hands home. He also paced the fight very well, very smart stuff. At time he beat the absolute dog shit out of Hopkins, all I can say is that Hopkins has one hell of a chin, he got caught flush and hard and even when he looked like he was about to go, stayed on his feet and saw it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leemond2008 Posted November 9, 2014 Share Posted November 9, 2014 Just watching it now, I'm into the second round I would have expected B Hop to get a bit closer he's dancing away from Kovalev, he should be in there up close spoiling the fight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leemond2008 Posted November 9, 2014 Share Posted November 9, 2014 They have just said Kovalev has no speed, maybe not with multiple punches but when he is just throwing singles or doubles I think he is fine and with his power he doesn't need the fastest hands Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leemond2008 Posted November 9, 2014 Share Posted November 9, 2014 I felt sorry for B Hop, his punch output was extremely low and it was a comprehensive defeat but he didn't disgrace himself at all. Dya recon he'll have one more big fight then knock it on the head? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted November 9, 2014 Author Share Posted November 9, 2014 Kovalev's speed is underrated, he's not slow, he has more speed than that and more importantly very good timing. Kovalev also showed he has excellent command of distance and ability to cut the ring off, he just didn't allow Hopkins to get inside of his reach much at all. Hopkins should probably retire although I still believe he'd give Stevenson a very good fight and would be extremely competitive in that one, if he can't fight Stevenson in his next fight he should retire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshVilla Posted November 21, 2014 Share Posted November 21, 2014 The Bellew Cleverley weighing looked nasty u can see genuine hate and spite between the pair I'm also interested in that bloke called the momma's boy his mom trains him is he any good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted November 21, 2014 Author Share Posted November 21, 2014 This must be the worst pay per view headliner ever. The buy rate for it will be extremely low. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted November 21, 2014 Share Posted November 21, 2014 (edited) But Bellew hates Clev! This fight is incredibly personal to him! It's nothing like when he hated Dos Santos in a fight which was incredibly personal to him. Or when he hated Brudov in a fight which was incredibly personal to him. Or when he hated... (I'll save us both a bit of time and just ask you to imagine I listed every single opponent Tony Bellew has had in his professional career). **edit** And in other news, Jermain Taylor has now been charged with shooting his cousin (which happened in August) and faces up to 26 years in jail: http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/11907380/boxer-jermain-taylor-charged-shooting-home Edited November 21, 2014 by The_Rev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leemond2008 Posted November 22, 2014 Share Posted November 22, 2014 This must be the worst pay per view headliner ever. The buy rate for it will be extremely low. Yep, the only thing is that I have nothing on tonight and I have a few quid to burn, I was tempted to order it just so I had something to watch but I recon I might just run the risk of watching it on the internet. Pac Man fighting Algieri tonight as well, I don't know what it is with him at the moment but I just cant get excited about him anymore, he is clearly more interested in his career outside of the ring and I think because of that I am more interested in other fighters inside the ring Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted November 22, 2014 Author Share Posted November 22, 2014 (edited) The Algieri fight is bizarre, he hasn't earned a shot at Pacquiao. His range and height may trouble Pacquiao early on but Pacquiao will pull away and win easy and I half fancy him to win by stoppage, he has looked fantastic in some of the training footage I've seen of him in the past week. That said, underwhelming fight, Pacquiao should be fighting better, his last fight was against a legit top pound for pounder (probably top 5 at that time) but he shouldn't be stepping in with the Algieri's of this world. Edited November 22, 2014 by Dr_Pangloss Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjw63 Posted November 22, 2014 Share Posted November 22, 2014 Any views on Maclin from last week? I watched it at my old mans...he was totally outclassed in my view Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donnie Posted November 22, 2014 Share Posted November 22, 2014 The Algieri fight is bizarre, he hasn't earned a shot at Pacquiao. His range and height may trouble Pacquiao early on but Pacquiao will pull away and win easy and I half fancy him to win by stoppage, he has looked fantastic in some of the training footage I've seen of him in the past week. That said, underwhelming fight, Pacquiao should be fighting better, his last fight was against a legit top pound for pounder (probably top 5 at that time) but he shouldn't be stepping in with the Algieri's of this world. But who else out there is there for him to fight realistically?? He should have been fighting Provodikinov but Algieri ruined that one. No one wants to see the Bradley fight again and JMM is getting boring now. There is no one else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted November 22, 2014 Author Share Posted November 22, 2014 There's a lot people he could fight over Algieri, Algieri isn't even on the map as far as an elite fighter like Pacquiao is concerned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted November 22, 2014 Share Posted November 22, 2014 Any views on Maclin from last week? I watched it at my old mans...he was totally outclassed in my view Jobber to the stars, isn't he? The kind of guy who gets title shots but loses them. Still, the bloke is a bluenose and a plastic paddy, I'll shed no tears. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjw63 Posted November 22, 2014 Share Posted November 22, 2014 Any views on Maclin from last week? I watched it at my old mans...he was totally outclassed in my view Jobber to the stars, isn't he? The kind of guy who gets title shots but loses them. Still, the bloke is a bluenose and a plastic paddy, I'll shed no tears. Didn't know he was a scummer, glad he got KTFO 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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