If Hopkins beats Kovalev . . . . . .

I'm talking about the risk to Kovalevs career. Hopkins legacy and bank balance are secure. Kovalev (to date) has earned very little in his career and if he loses badly to Hopkins it could set him back quite a way.

Sergeis got a newborn son and wife to provide for - some might say that he woulda been smarter to milk the strap and carry on KOing B/C level guys till BHops retired when there's every likelihood he coulda been king of the pile.

Sadly Kovalevs past opposition has been about the best available - in fact he really broke lucky getting the names he did - Campillo would never have bothered with Kovalev if he'd got the nod against Cloud and Cleverly clearly badly underestimated him.

Easy to forget that (the Simakov tragedy aside) Sergei was unknown outside of the most hardcore until the start of last year and was certainly in no position to expect or demand top name opponents.

 

Calzaghe who?

 

Removed

 

He's got a poster of Calzaghe on his bedroom door.

 

The guy that beat Hopkins in his backyard, with an US referee and 3 US judges using nothing but slaps, that Calzaghe! :good

I'm anything but a Slappy Joe fan, but it's sad to deny his win over -what we know now- not a far past it B-Hop when the entire deck was stacked against him.

 

Entire deck stacked against him?

Cut it out with that crap, stop making Calzaghe into some sort of underdog hero which he wasnt.

Not all US referrees or judges are corrupt, and its not like Hopkins has robbed other fighters before or regularly.

Calzaghe got a controversial SD, Hopkins wanted a rematch, Calzaghe ****ed off and retired and nobody gives a damn about him or his 'legacy'.

 

It almost never happens that a foreigner wins a close fight in the US, unless he either lives there and has a big local fanbase or he has a bigtime promoter behind him (Golden Boy, TopRank etc).
If you see the polls on almost every website the vast majority had Calslappy as the rightful winner, and a lot of the guys that had it for B-Hop had it razor close. The only people that thought it was 'controversial' were Hopkins fans.
Of course Hopkins is by far the bigger name, but he lost to the slapping Italian Welshman.

 

It was close for the first 5/6 rounds after that Cal outworked him. For me it wasn't even close.

 

yes joe used stamina advantage to beat old man who until gassing was hitting and dodging joe at will

 

But Hopkins himself isnt a superstar, its not like hes a Floyd Mayweather or a Roy Jones where the referees and/or judges may show some bias against the foreign fighter.

If Calzaghe was fighting a POPULAR fighter then yes, there is the concern of bias, but come on, most people cant stand Hopkins.

Secondly, it was razor close either way. If Calzaghe was really interested in genuine greatness he would have said 'i want to put the question marks to rest' lets do it a second time.

Did he do that? no, he quickly grabbed a Roy Jones payday and then quickly retired.

 

Sergey KRUSHER Kovalev is the elite of 175lbs and hopkins did zilch

 

What a shock BerolGee hating on 'Zaggers