Bernard Hopkins DID NOT try to win the fight vs The Krusher

he tried for a round...and knew this was a different guy hes been fighting..... hes 49 and did it.....look at the prime bums that fight wlad and do the same thing.... or the ones that tried to survive vs mike tyson.... his goal was to survive and he did
thats a win for him

 

I work for a group of casinos, on the software and odds side of things. It is a real job, thanks. I've watched the fight three times now, and about 50% of it at 1/2 speed slowmo, which I do for most analysis (sometimes 1/4 speed). Anyway, I just comment on what I see, there's no "narrative" except for the one coming out of the "Hopkins threw the fight" or "Hopkins didn't try" crowd. You guys are the ones with eyes closed not seeing the foot work, strategy (kudos to John David) and power used to shut down every avenue attempted by Hopkins. You can tell JDJ knew Hopkins inside and out and trained Kovalev for it all. Wake up, be objective and admit a 49 year old legend got beat despite his best efforts. It happens. I wish Bernard would have won and made history, but it wasn't to be. At least I'm objective enough to not make lame excuses for the guy I bet on and the guy I wanted to win when he lost.

 

Youve watched it three times already? good god. you deserve some credit for watching that snoozefest over again, then again it's more like masochism and no one applauds that.

And as a matter of fact I was rooting for Kov to beat Hopkins up, still doesn't change what I saw. A timid, old man, with zero movement standing on one spot and being herded around without offering any resistance and throwing next to no punches.

You know nothing if you think Hopkins couldnt have done anything in reply to Kov tactics, there's always a way - especially for someone so skilled as Hopkins. Problem came to the execution, he didn't try to pull it off, rather he resigned himself to defeat and out of pride or foolishness chose to trade a bit in the latter rounds. Rest of the fight he was a spectator. FFS I cant even think of one point in the fight where he was breathing hard! He coasted through in a defensive shell, he knew he was losing and didnt change it up. To me that's giving up. End of story.

 

hops was banking on kov fading badly after 6/7 rounds for some UNKNOWN reason. just because you don't need more than 8 rounds with your opponents does NOT mean you cannot go further.

once hops tasted the power he was in survival mode. not that he didn't try to win he couldn't win no matter what. he didn twant to be brutally ko'd but that is a problem for me.

if you're a real champ and talking like you're the man, YOU TRY to win no matter what. he knew after 4/5 rounds he could only win by ko. hops had NO chance of outboxing kov, no way no how.

he has lost before, once you lose you can for some reason accept defeat better then next few times. hops didn't do enough to even try to win, I give him credit for his CHIN only in that fight. he did nothing to give himself a chance to win.

I think he should be banned from talking like a badass from now on

 

if i had to compare it to something..... Camacho vs Rosario..... not sure which round Camacho got nailed in, but his whole plan changed and he didnt engage for the rest of the fight.....and for about 30 fights after.... but he had speed enough to make it work.... he tasted rosarios power and didnt get close again....

 

Bernard said he would never embarrass himself.
To him, I guess being knocked out is being embarrassed, but what do you call being a heavybag for 12 rounds and losing 120- 107 x2 and 120-106 ?
Thats pretty embarrassing bernard!!

 

nothing embarrassing about stepping up and fighting the most dangerous guy in the division...... he tasted his power and went into survival mode...... whats embarrassing is all the other so called champions not fighting each other

 

The context in which he was saying it was an interviewer asking him if he was too old for this ****, and if he really thinks he can beat Kov in response Hopkins said that he won't ever embarrass himself. I think in hindsight its pretty clear that he didnt belong in that ring with Kov on saturday night.

 

He thought Kovalev was just some stiff robot that would just lumber forward and walk right into his punches. He was wrong. Then he couldnt deal with Kovalev's power so he went into survival mode.

 

BS He was lost in there and he didn't know what to do with the talented Kovelov-:deal
Got to call like Letterman saw it

 

Maybe he didnt have the balls, but maybe he knew he would get knocked out if he opened up and so he tried to increase his chance of winning in the later rounds as Kovalev might have punched himself out or gass. Didn't work as he was outboxed till the 12th but to say winning was no option for him after the 1st round is a bit of an insult, dont you think?

 

Good God, its worse than I feared! I was going to say to you the first time that you're robbing your employer, thinking you're a boxing writer, but, sadly, seems that was more correct than I realized! God help them if you're setting odds!

But seriously pal, none of us are saying that what Kovalev was doing was not making things difficult for Hops, the point is Hops could have tried actually throwing punches, but he didn't becuase he was affraid to get KOd. He could have opted to do something that would, while at the same time putting him at risk, give him a chance to win the fight. None of us are saying that it is necessarily the case that Hops would have won if he had just tried (matter of fact, most likely he would have gotten KOd).

 

So you don't think that's embarassing, going into survival mode???

 

I think he really is an alien, because that was NOT hopkins in there that night. He only threw like 150 punches the whole fight, didn't do anything dirty, didn't really do anything at all. nothing about his performance was bernard

 

The only time he tried to come forward a right lead put him on his ass.

Of course he went into survival mode after that.

Kov protected himself from the dirty infighting, noticed a few times Hopkins would come in and clinch, Kov would put a glove inbetween Hopkin's face and himself preventing any headbutt attempt. Jackson had him very well prepared.