Atlantic City, NJ (SportsNetwork.com) – Sergey Kovalev dominated 49-year-old
Bernard Hopkins and won a 12-round unanimous decision to unify the world light
heavyweight titles.
Kovalev (26-0-1, 23 KOs), who came into the bout as the WBO champion, floored
Hopkins with a right hand to the face in the first round. Although Hopkins has
never been knocked out in his career, he showed little aggression in this
fight and lost by counts of 120-107 from two judges and 120-106 from the other
scorer.
Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOs), who turns 50 on Jan. 15, lost the WBA and IBF
versions of his belt and couldn’t rally against a boxer 18 years younger. The
crowd at Boardwalk Hall chanted “B-Hop! B-Hop!” in round seven when Kovalev
was unrelenting.
In the eighth round, Kovalev landed a solid right to the top of the head,
causing Hopkins to stumble, but he managed to stay on his feet.
Kovalev, who hadn’t lasted past the eighth round in any of his previous bouts,
tried to knock out the Philadelphia native in the final round. He landed 38 of
his 89 punches thrown and sent Hopkins to the worst decision loss of his
career.
After the fight Kovalev said Hopkins “needs to stop his career” to give
younger fighters an opportunity.
Hopkins said he was “50/50” on whether he’d retire.
