Tonight he beat old man Hopkins. I wish Hopkins still had it, but he clearly was past his sell by date. Respect to Hopkins, he made the final bell.
This reminded me of Rocky Balboa in a sense. Not from an action perspective of course, but just a case of a fighter with nothing left to prove out to prove something anyways. And I think Hopkins did- he didn't look for a cheap way out from the ref and didn't fight extraordinarily dirty, one or both of which I expected when things got rough. The old dog didn't need this fight, was outgunned (and pretty much out-everything'd) from the start, but he was going to make it to the final bell regardless. Hopkins fought to survive, and he did. Honestly, for my criticisms of Hopkins going into the fight, I've got nothing bad to say about his performance, his choice of how to fight the fight, or his post-fight comments/reflections. I'm not going to sit here and rag on him for being concerned about self preservation even if it led to a relative lack of fireworks for a majority of the fight. I credit him for lasting the distance and absorbing some flush shots that would've dropped most other 175 pounders for the count.
I completely agree. I thought this would be a lose, lose fight, but it turned out to be a win, win, because Hopkins did amazing for having turned so old. In the first seconds I could see how old and stiff he was, the reflexes were gone, and even his power wasn't there. He was still dangerous, but Kovalev was smart to be patient. The Hopkins that faught Calzaghe would have probably still lost, but the fight would have been way different.
