That Hopkins took on the ?Alien? namesake and mask for this bout did little for his image, save as metaphor?
Sergey Kovalev cake-walked over the ancient Bernard Hopkins in a landslide decision in Atlantic City last night, unifying three light heavyweight world titles. Taking place in the early morning hours in Atlantic City, this fight was a snoozer, the perfect antidote for late-night insomniacs. Though the title fight went the distance over 12 rounds, for most it was more like watching one round twelve times, the boxing equivalent of ?Groundhog Day.? While shadow-boxing is usually a solitary activity, these two shadow-boxed each other every round, putting on a ?how-to-feint-without-ever-punching? clinic en route. Always the master illusionist and box office draw, Hopkins definitely showed his age, offering little in this fight to substantiate his continuing to compete as a serious contender in his weight class. B-Hop didn?t come to win. Rather, he fought merely not to lose, looking only to go the distance and avoid a KO. He accomplished little else, save draw a chorus of periodic boos from the pro-Hopkins crowd, who arguably, didn?t get their money?s worth.
Nonetheless, Hopkins continues to be shilled by HBO, with commentators Jim Lampley, Roy Jones and Max Kellerman serially marveling, if not genuflecting, before his past upsets over more favored opponents, along with his seeming immunity to advanced age. Reverencing the Hopkins legend and what he once was kept them from effectively seeing and commenting on the skills that are no longer there. The only credible commentator at this bout was Harold Lederman, celebrated ringside judge and HBO analyst, who, early in the bout saw that Hopkins ?has nothing, looking like a man who needed two aspirin and a glass of cold water, wondering what he was doing here.? As a licensed pharmacist, Lederman knows the stinking odor of a dead fly in the apothecary?s ointment when he sniffs it. Sounds like a fitting prescription for an imminent retirement to me.
That Hopkins took on the ?Alien? namesake and mask for this bout did little for his image, save as metaphor ? as a boxer whose fast eroding skills render him ever more ?alien? to the sport that served him well. In his ring career, Bernard Hopkins has done many things well and memorable, though he did few of those vs. Kovalev in Atlantic City.
To his credit in this bout, Hopkins did see fit to abandon his ?Executioner? shtick, complete with masquerade and throat-slashing gestures in this, the age of Isis brutality. Says something about the guy?s sensibility, taste and presence of mind ? the only points he scored on this writer?s card.
