Legendary boxer Bernard Hopkins has signed to take on Sergey Kovalev this coming November 8th. For Hopkins, Who will be two months short of his fiftieth birthday come fight time, it is the most dangerous opponent he has faced in a long time. In Hopkins’ last outing against Beibut Shumenov, a rugged eastern European with title pedigree, Hopkins was a (-250) favorite going in. He dropped Shumenov and won a split decision, and Hopkins was never in any real trouble in the match, as his experience was too much for his opponent, who had less than 15 professional fights under his belt. Shumenov was 19 years younger than Hopkins and Kovalev will have a similar age difference. Kovalev, however, has an extensive amateur boxing background at the national and Russian military level, which means a lot of tough competition. His style has translated well to the pros, where he is undefeated (25-0-1) and has one of the two highest active knockout percentages going (along with Gennady Golovkin). He is relentless and is known as the ‘Krusher’ because he works the body so aggressively. Kovalev is not fast or amazingly technical, which is where Hopkins will see his chance. Hopkins is going to have to get on his horse and move for the twelve full rounds. He is going to look to hurt Kovalev, who has been down in his career. He will need to avoid the punishment that Kovalev will be looking to pile on as he works into the later rounds. The line for Kovalev-Hopkins will be a lot closer to pick ’em than Hopkins was against Shumentov, if they don’t favor Kovalev outright. Hopkins, who is on record as stating he wants to compete at a high level at 50 years old, has certainly not picked an easy path to get there. Should he get by Kovalev, which is unlikely, he will have written another chapter in his Hall of Fame career.
