SONAHR: August 3, 2014 – For eight seconds on Saturday, it looked as though boxing?s Upset of the Year was in the making. Underdog Blake Caparello had just decked defending WBO light-heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev in the first round of their title bout, and the crowd ? not to mention Kovalev ? was stunned.
After the mandatory eight-count was completed, however, Caparello?s hopes for an unexpected victory faded faster than chances for peace in the Middle East. In the next round, an aroused Kovalev dropped Caparello three times to force a halt to a contest that had rapidly become the anticipated slaughter.
Thus, Kovalev advanced to a 25-0-1 slate, with 23 knockouts. The knockdown Caparello scored may or may not have been a fluke. But the dynamite Kovalev carries in his gloves is as real as real can get. And the next target for those gloves is going to be none other than ageless wonder Bernard Hopkins, the 49-year-old who holds WBA and IBF slices of the 175-pound championship pie.
This matchup is somewhat unexpected. The light-heavyweight ?dream fight? of 2014 is Kovalev against BC/Ring magazine champion Adonis Stevenson, not Kovalev-Hopkins. Both Kovalev and Stevenson are punchers, and a battle between them promised plenty of crowd-pleasing fireworks, not to mention major pay-per-view and box-office revenues.
Unfortunately, Kovalev-Stevenson got mired in a morass of promotional problems, and a match with Hopkins became the preferred alternative. It?s scheduled for November 8, and already anticipation is building. Can Hopkins solve the problem of Kovalev, in the same manner he has managed against so many other younger, eager would-be conquerors in the past?
At first glance, it would seem that Kovalev is the kind of fighter Hopkins usually takes to school. Yes, Sergey is talented. But he is nowhere near as experienced as Hopkins. As long as Hopkins? phenomenal body continues to carry out the commands of his peerless boxing brain, there?s no reason to believe he can?t defuse Kovalev?s bombs.
And yet ? Hopkins is not invincible. When he was still a middleweight nearly a decade ago, he lost back-to-back decisions for Jermain Taylor. More recently, he was outpointed by Joe Calzaghe and Chad Dawson. Taylor was an energetic fighter who outworked Hopkins. Calzaghe and Dawson were skilled boxers who were able to beat Hopkins at his own game.
Although Kovalev possesses considerable boxing skills to go along with his punching power, he doesn?t rely on those skillss to the extent that Calzaghe and Dawson did. In terms of energy and aggression, he is more like Taylor. But Kovalev is a harder hitter than Taylor ever was. And that?s what makes him a dangerous proposition for Hopkins.
Kovalev-Hopkins will be a classic old lion vs. young lion showdown. This fight could be billed as ?The Lion King? ? but that designation was taken a long time ago by the classic Disney animated movie. Whatever it?s called, it promises to be one of the most intriguing bouts of the year.
