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Boxing Discussion

"They thought I was just going to wait and that I only had one option. They underestimated me. They thought I wasn't going to look at other options. I was the last Golden Boy fighter to fight on HBO before the Cold War. How ironic that I am now the first fighter/partner of Golden Boy to get back on HBO to open the flood gates." ~ Hopkins.
 
"They thought I was just going to wait and that I only had one option. They underestimated me. They thought I wasn't going to look at other options. I was the last Golden Boy fighter to fight on HBO before the Cold War. How ironic that I am now the first fighter/partner of Golden Boy to get back on HBO to open the flood gates." ~ Hopkins.

What does this mean?
 

BadAss2961

Member
So is this where Hopkins gets knocked out? I have a hard time imaging how he'll survive against a beast like Kovalev, but he always pulls it off somehow. Even when he loses, it's an ugly, frustrating fight for his opponent.
 
What does this mean?

Kovalev was chasing a fight with Stevenson, it was a great fan friendly fight. Stevenson however 'crossed the street' to Showtime and signed with Al Haymon, seemingly with a view of fighting Hopkins in the future. However Hopkins has since said there has never been serious negotiations for a fight with Stevenson, and with an IBF mandatory looming Hopkins needed a unification fight to get out of it. Haymon it seems thought the only option for a unification fight was Stevenson, so tried to corner Hopkins. Hopkins however smashed the 'Cold War' wall and signed to fight Kovalev on HBO for the unification instead.

It's amazingly glorious.
 

jimbor

Banned
So is this where Hopkins gets knocked out? I have a hard time imaging how he'll survive against a beast like Kovalev, but he always pulls it off somehow. Even when he loses, it's an ugly, frustrating fight for his opponent.

Kovalev makes enough mistakes for Bhop to capitalise upon and win a snoozefest on points.
 

Tom_Cody

Member
Am I the only one who though that Drakulich was disqualifying Rios (and not Chaves) at the time of the stoppage?

When that moment hit in the 9th round, at first I thought he was breaking their clinch, and then Rio started screaming (and Chavez had a shocked look on his face in response to Rios' loss of control), and as then, as the fight was being waved off, Rios had to be physically restrained.

I was watching it with my GF and we were both trying to track what was going on in the aftermath of Drakulich waving it off. At first I thought he had disqualified Chavez, but then when I saw Rios screaming I assumed that he was disqualifying Rios (due to to Rios' complete lack of self-control). She actually thought Drakulich had simply waved off the fight (with the outcome to be decided by the scorecard).

This has to be by far the worst move by a ref I have ever seen (aside from fights that were allowed to go too long and fighters got injured) and this wasn't close to being the dirtiest fight I've ever seen. What the hell Drakulich? The fouls just weren't that bad. And now the winning fighter has a loss to Rios on his record.
 

Tom_Cody

Member
So is this where Hopkins gets knocked out? I have a hard time imaging how he'll survive against a beast like Kovalev, but he always pulls it off somehow. Even when he loses, it's an ugly, frustrating fight for his opponent.
Hopkins has pushed the ejection button in two past fights by claiming questionable injuries . If he's getting beaten up, he will simply figure out a way to escape.
http://boxrec.com/show_display.php?show_id=8400
http://boxrec.com/show_display.php?show_id=623522

We will never see Hopkins face-first on the canvas.
 
Kovelev has never been past 8 rounds. He's never fought anyone near the level of skill of Hopkins. His power is fantastic, but Hopkins has a way of making you fight his fight.

Hopkins will take him to deep waters and eek out a split decision. After the fight no one will be able to understand why Kovelev stood in front of him and didn't throw punches.
 

Tom_Cody

Member
Kovelev has never been past 8 rounds. He's never fought anyone near the level of skill of Hopkins. His power is fantastic, but Hopkins has a way of making you fight his fight.

Hopkins will take him to deep waters and eek out a split decision. After the fight no one will be able to understand why Kovelev stood in front of him and didn't throw punches.
I personally think Kovelev is a tier above guys like Jean Pascal and Tavoris Cloud who had fights like that against Hopkins. We shall see.
 
Kovalev was chasing a fight with Stevenson, it was a great fan friendly fight. Stevenson however 'crossed the street' to Showtime and signed with Al Haymon, seemingly with a view of fighting Hopkins in the future. However Hopkins has since said there has never been serious negotiations for a fight with Stevenson, and with an IBF mandatory looming Hopkins needed a unification fight to get out of it. Haymon it seems thought the only option for a unification fight was Stevenson, so tried to corner Hopkins. Hopkins however smashed the 'Cold War' wall and signed to fight Kovalev on HBO for the unification instead.

It's amazingly glorious.

Does Haymon have a stake in Showtime? From what I've heard of him, he's a shadowy figure.
 

Tom_Cody

Member
Does Haymon have a stake in Showtime? From what I've heard of him, he's a shadowy figure.
My understanding is that he and Richard Schaefer (former Golden Boy CEO) had plans to ultimately start a boxing network in the vein of the WWE network. So, no Haymon does not have a stake in Showtime. This is part of the reason that Golden Boy / Haymon fighters no longer appear on HBO.
 
Really impressive knockdown by Figueroa vs Estrada then. Used a large cut as bait and sucked Estrada in then dropped him with a huge right hand. Very smart.
 

Turin

Banned
I'm down for Khan vs. Brook.

Give Keith Thurman an opponent that he can make some money against, like Victor Ortiz, to sate his appetite until he fights the winner.
 
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