Same here. Kovalev should relocate to Canada and become their Tyson. I thought Bute might have nipped rounds 3 and 5. I think he landed more punches in those rounds, too? He seemed to have nothing on his punches until the 12th and even then I'm not sure if they were all that effective. Pascal wasn't all that impressive, but he paced himself well and took advantage of Bute's sloth. Not really sure that Bute is done. He took some decent shots without getting hurt and showed some flashes of his old self at the end of the right. This is possibly just an off-night performance and something that could be turned around. For starters, it looked like he belonged back at 168.
i've yet to see stevenson fight a moving target. dawson would've posed some difficulties, but he got clocked too early. i'm curious to see how stevenson, a mover himself deals w/ another guy's footwork and hand speed.
To make SilentNights day, here is a video where Kovalev gets KOd as an amateur [video=youtube;sEHAmijv2Q4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEHAmijv2Q4[/video]
:: :bears: I've always been a big Hopkins believer, and I think I've only been proved wrong by him once, against Pavlik. But against Kovalev - a crafty, ferocious beast that hits like a truck? This version of Hopkins gets steamrolled.
kovalev is an hbo guy. hopkins aint fighting on that network. he's facing scrubby shumenov who he should beat easy
His chin has held up and he has much more variety and skill than Kovlev. He obviously sees the weakness in Kovalev that I see as well that's greatly overrated just because he hits hard. I've never seen Hopkins talk so confidently about beating someone and not do it.
I think the difference was he was just saying generic fight hype stuff. I didn't take that "I would never lose to a white boy" etc, stuff seriously. He didn't bury Calzaghe's skill level or say he would "easily" beat him like he's saying for Kovalev. He said Kov would be easier than Pavlik. He's also said he can't beat Andre Ward so he's usually not the type to talk trash for the sake of it. Long story short, all that Calzaghe stuff was just smack talking. He seems outright dismissive of Kovalev and his abilities. Doesn't really surprise me because Kovalev has beaten no one but a bunch of bums. As far as people saying that Hopkins wont fight him, he has been targeting the fight very aggressively, and it was already officially proposed to Showtime but they turned it down.
Yeah that is true to be fair, I guess it was fairly generic smack talk. Either way he's obviously underestimating Kovalev. Kovalev is the style of fighter that Nard historically dominates, but Nard is too old, and Kovalev is a lot less basic than Pavlik. He's sneaky, accurate, and knows when to throw and how to land. He's no face first brawler, that's for sure.
So let's say there is no way that the fight can be made, all that does is explain why Hopkins is bringing him up.
why would he want to fight kovalev? the guy is basically nobody and he is liable to give hopkins a whipping. what did you think about the amateur video posted of kovalev getting KOd?
Look up in the thread and that's the claim. I'd like to see what happened after Kovalev went down. Did he get up? Regardless, shit happens, and having a shitty chin is not a deficiency against Hopkins who can't knock out a jr high girl these days. The easiest way to beat Hopkins these days is just to push him and outthrow him. Kovalev doesn't do that, but I still think he hits hard enough and does enough to win.
Jean Pascal scored a 12 round UD, "Unanimous Decision" over Lucian Bute, over 12 rounds. Both men reside in Canada and fought 12 rounds.
