Comments Thread For: Hopkins: I Wanted Kovalev, Smart Move To Pick Cleverly

[-MAKAVELLI-]

the Alien is lying

[Citizen Koba]

Funny, cos at the time he kinda said that he thought Kovalev should fight Cleverly whilst he unified with Stevenson - the quote has been posted so many times I ain't even gonna bother.

This is just part of the gradual campaign to legitimise the Shumenov / Hopkins / Stevenson winner as 'Unified Champ' and marginalise Kovalev that is subtly (or not so subtly) present in many of Hopkins recent statements and interviews.

I've huge respect for Hopkins achievements both in and out of the ring but this is smoke and mirrors - when he talks about being the undisputed or unified champ you'll notice that Kovalevs name or the WBO title are simply not mentioned,

[DoktorSleepless]

If hopkins becomes undisputed, he will become the 2nd man in history to become undisputed in 2 weight classes. evander holyfield being the 1st

Hopkins in recent years will have fought three guys Campillo had already beaten instead of Campillo himself or the guy who blew out Campillo in 2 rounds. Why do people care so much about these meaningless unifications?

[786]

Where's that interview, before Kovalev signed to fight Cleverly where Hopkins was pretty much saying he didn't want to fight Kovalev and that he thinks he should fight cleverly instead of him?

Hops is chatting ****. Changed his tune and got brave when he positioned himself where it's nearly impossible to make the fight.

[daggum]

Im sorry but this is wrong. Hopkins was ordered to face Kurat who was his mandatory, and Kurat had issues with his visa and pulled out of the fight, Kovalev then became the new mandatory to Hopkins title. Hopkins agreed to honor their decision and fight Kovalev but Kurat had his visa issue settled and was renamed the mandatory. BUT Duva had the chance to pursue the Hopkins fight anyway or go fight Cleverly(Which HBO wanted) and they feared if they didnt fight Cleverly that Hopkins would go and sign on to fight him and team Kovalev would be left without a dance partner, so they quickly signed to fight Cleverly since HBO was pushing for Krusher to take his belt and build up a Kovalev-Stevenson fight. This is what happened.. Hopkins didnt "pass up" the fight.

how do you explain showtime approving murat but not kovalev? still waiting. also who runs showtime? is it someone from golden boy? yes. now who runs golden boy? hopkins and others? yes.

[daggum]

golden boy is running a racket here. good management? what do you call cloud, murat, and shumenov? great management! kovalev fought campillo who schooled all 3 of hopkin's opponents and went to wales to fight cleverly. hopkins stayed at home cherry picking while hiding behind his promoter(aka himself) while pretending he wanted a fight that he rejected.

[-Kev-]

Hopkins beats shumenov and adonis, and IF the fight with Kovalev ever happens, i think Kovalev will be the 1st to KO the old man.....

Replace Kovalev with Trinidad, Tarver, Pavlik, B-Hop has heard that before plenty of times

[J The UnBiased]

Im sorry but this is wrong. Hopkins was ordered to face Kurat who was his mandatory, and Kurat had issues with his visa and pulled out of the fight, Kovalev then became the new mandatory to Hopkins title. Hopkins agreed to honor their decision and fight Kovalev but Kurat had his visa issue settled and was renamed the mandatory. BUT Duva had the chance to pursue the Hopkins fight anyway or go fight Cleverly(Which HBO wanted) and they feared if they didnt fight Cleverly that Hopkins would go and sign on to fight him and team Kovalev would be left without a dance partner, so they quickly signed to fight Cleverly since HBO was pushing for Krusher to take his belt and build up a Kovalev-Stevenson fight. This is what happened.. Hopkins didnt "pass up" the fight.

let these clowns believe what they wanna believe.

[Citizen Koba]

Im sorry but this is wrong. Hopkins was ordered to face Kurat who was his mandatory, and Kurat had issues with his visa and pulled out of the fight, Kovalev then became the new mandatory to Hopkins title. Hopkins agreed to honor their decision and fight Kovalev but Kurat had his visa issue settled and was renamed the mandatory. BUT Duva had the chance to pursue the Hopkins fight anyway or go fight Cleverly(Which HBO wanted) and they feared if they didnt fight Cleverly that Hopkins would go and sign on to fight him and team Kovalev would be left without a dance partner, so they quickly signed to fight Cleverly since HBO was pushing for Krusher to take his belt and build up a Kovalev-Stevenson fight. This is what happened.. Hopkins didnt "pass up" the fight.

Hopkins said, yeah he'd take the fight, knowing full well that once Espinoza had nixed it it wasn't gonna happen. Hopkins acceptance (even qualified as it was) was a face saving measure that woulda been approved of by politicians of any stripe. You really think Espinoza said no to the Kovalev fight without consulting BHop - very active partner in GBP upon whom SHO boxing is essentially dependant?

As has been pointed out these events are all well documented - though of course you can choose to interpret them as you choose. To assume that Hopkins had no say in SHO turning down the Kovalev fight (which at least had a degree of buzz about it) for Murat, who is just a never was, is naive in the extreme however. Hopkins is very proud of telling us of the control and power he exercises over his career, yet he couldn't convince Espinoza to air the Kovalev fight? Come on. smh.

Oh and for what it's worth the Clev fight was all but signed and sealed before the Murat situation even arose...just waiting on Kovalev to beat White before it was announced. There's footage of Warren looking slightly ****** at the announcement presser as he has to announce that the awaited confirmation hadn't come through (due to Duva trying to establish whether the suddenly possible Hopkins fight was actually feasible)... there's also reports from the time of Warren recieving offers from GBP for a Hopkins fight which should imply how things were likely to play out.

In short Kovalev took an already arranged and agreed title fight over one that might never happen or a likely meaningless fight for a vacant belt.

[BoxingFan82]

Kovalev has given us reason to believe he could have a bright future in this sport, but all of the folks who think he's going to walk through Bernard Hopkins are ignoring the fact that Bernard has made a career of beating fighters who were supposed to beat him. Felix Trinidad was supposed to beat Hopkins. Hopkins was a 3-1 underdog when he fought Antonio Tarver. Kelly Pavlik was a 4-1 favorite over Hopkins. A lot of people believed Tarver and Pavlik would knock Hopkins out.

The Hopkins-Kovalev talk reminds me of the talk before Mayweather-Canelo. Go back through all the posts here. There were tons of posters who believed that Canelo was too big and too strong for Mayweather, and that a poorly-conditioned fighter with a track record of beating up mediocre, undersized opposition would somehow chop down the most skilled and arguably best conditioned boxer in the sport. Even after Canelo was put in his place, you still have fools who think he could beat Mayweather because they were impressed by what Canelo did to Alfredo Angulo, a fighter who, as tough as he is, isn't even in the same class as Mayweather's weakest opponent in the past decade.

A lot of fans simply don't understand that there are levels to this game, and Bernard Hopkins is on another level even as he approaches the age of 50.