Why was Hopkins raising his hand after the end of the fight?

Fooling the judges, hopkins style. He also put his hands up in celebration when he pushed kovalev over. Its crafty sly sneaky and not very sportmanlike. but it is the brutal of boxing so he gets a pass, its hard enough taking kovalev bombs all night.

 

Because he survived

 

He did it because he managed to weather the storm and last the distance against one of sport's feared punchers. It was a final show of defiance, from someone who realized almost from the start that he wouldn't be able to display much more than that during the course of the evening.

 

He was nervous

 

For surviving that brutal twelfth.

I mean, that seemed obvious. :conf

 

He was knocked goofy

 

Had the fight been even semi-competitive the scorecards would have been razor close for sentimental reasons.
Hopkins knows the sport is corrupt and by raising his hands I think he was wishing he'd be on the better end of a gift.

I have no doubt in my mind had Hopkins gotten an undeserved decision, he would claim he used his smarts and ring generalship to win the fight, thats why he raised his hands at the end of 12.

 

:!:

He was happy he survived his @ss kicking!! :tired

 

Hopkins fought to just survive, so in his mind - he won.
Raising his hand is just confirmation that Hopkins fought solely to survive.

 

i will survive, yehey

 

Would'nt submit? :huh

Submit is exactly what Hopkins did when he chose to just hang around and survive.