Did Kovalev carry Hopkins?

You know it had to be in the back of Sergey's head that he killed someone, he took it very hard when it happened, he probably didn't want to be known as the man who killed an ATG it might even ruin his career like it did for Mancini, it wouldn't look as good on his resume as dominating BHop will, he just outboxed a master boxer..

 

He fought smart.. like the anti-Kahn. I think he wanted to show how much of a superior boxer and fighter he is since clowns were calling him one dimensional. He was content with demoralizing and demonstrating that next to him, Bhop is skill-less. He did punish him a little extra in the 12th round when bhop got disrespectful. I think if they had fought years earlier, he would knock out bhop. Bhop would have less respect and been more engaged and then it's lights out berny.

 

Paid him good respect. Hopkins still showed defensive skills in the fight given that he might as well have not even bothered punching back at all and he still evaded enough and showed decent enough speed....

 

Kovalev did'nt carry Hopkins he schooled him.

 

the guy knew he wasnt in there with a scrub. he just established himself as the superior fighter without giving hops a chance to compete by opening himself up.

 

Hopkins isn't 130 years old. Stop it.

 

To much respect yep also he wanted to prove to people he knows how to box and is more than just a big puncher

 

No, Kovalev did'nt take it easy on Hopkins.
Kovalev's training team really had Kovalev mentally prepared with a sound gameplan, and even Hopkins mentioned in the post fight interview that Kovalev was very smart in holding back and re-setting when he came in aggressive.
Great tactical fighters like Hopkins take advantage of fighters who are aggressive and come foward so Kovalev changed things up on Hopkins and did'nt allow him to get into a rhythm where Hopkins could instinctively time his aggression.
Got to give props to Kovalev, I dont care how old Hopkins is he's still one of the divisions best and Kovalev did anything he wanted in that ring against a still pretty good and most definitely a very skilled fighter.

 

I genuinely feared for bernards health and safety in the last round.

 

If he was carrying him he would have gone a bit easier in round 12.

He just fought cautious which you cant blame him for. He stuck with his game plan.

 

No he wasn't carrying Hopkins. Hopkins just put defense first, not quite 100% survival mode but still he did not do even a modest amount of punching. This will not be a classic fight by any stretch of the imagination. In retrospect it seems like the highest paid most glorified 12 rounds of sparring EVER.

 

He got buzzed a few times he didn't focus and it got his attention. He knew BHop was a wily old fox, he could have played possum, lured him in and got him with a sweet shot on the chin and it could have been lights out.

BHop still had a box of tricks but sadly the magic has gone.