Adonis Stevenson vs. Bernard Hopkins

This was supposed to happen, remember? Actually for three years running now the match-up has been hinted at heavily by multiple parties, including the combatants themselves along with promoters & networks.

The original face to face meeting where they discussed a possible showdown, on June 21st of 2013 and took some photos together with a short face-off:
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There was buzz anew the following year when Stevenson left HBO for Showtime after signing with Al Haymon, leaving the proposed Kovalev match-up on HBO in tatters. Hopkins was then campaigning on Showtime's airwaves (he fought both Murat and Shumenov on Showtime). Ultimately nothing came of it, with Stevenson defending his title from Sakio Bika and Tommy Karpency and Hopkins actually returning to HBO to unsuccessfully challenge Kovalev.

Then, most of the 50-year-old legend's 2015 was spent vacillating between calling out retired super middleweight Carl Froch, and rekindling his desire for a clash with Stevenson.

This has been so long in the making, and makes sense for everybody involved. Hopkins insists he isn't going out with an L and wants his farewell bout to be versus a big name and ideally for a belt. Stevenson, meanwhile, needs an injection of credibility in his reign. Even if he doesn't match Kovalev's shutout performance for direct comparison bragging rights, just having the name Hopkins on his resume would greatly enhance it.

Can the cagey future Hall of Fame inductee nullify the power and movement of the WBC light heavyweight champion with his savvy, roughness, and 2" height advantage to ride off into the sunset with the green belt, or will the champion exploit Hopkins' occasional difficulties with southpaws (as seen most prominently with Dawson and Calzaghe, and to a lesser extent Wright, Vanderpool, and Jackson in the early going...but obviously not with Allen, Tarver, Holmes, or Daniels) and outbox him like Kovalev or even one-up the Russian with a stoppage of the now quinquagenarian? :think

 

At this point it pretty much has to be this or we don't see Hopkins again, I'm guessing? He clearly isn't getting Froch.

 

I find it a really fascinating match-up in 2016, given all factors. (Hopkins cresting over the hill of 50, losing every minute to Kovalev and then having a sizable layoff weighed against Stevenson looking anything but immortal facing subpar challengers of late, all going along with the fact that it always had "interesting puzzle" written all over it due to styles and respective attributes. Hopins was caught at the end of some left hand leads on the outside pretty regularly in the Dawson rematch - what happens if the far more powerful Stevenson lands those repeatedly? Does he make a dent in that aging iron ATG chin and put some wobble in those extremely well-conditioned but still 50-year-old legs? Can the Executioner, whose punch was most potent at MW and whose power at LHW is negligible though not altogether feathery, use his wits and negativity to grind his way inside and lay enough hits - legal and otherwise - on Stevenson to rupture his tissue paper chin?)

 

All true but one thing he can do is circle and work or time-waste from outside without tiring. Hopkins prefers to do his work up close and has struggled historically with movement, especially from southpaws.

...and he's now 50, and let Kovalev (not first and foremost a boxer) outbox him.