I'm tired of Espinosa already man. That fool is getting on my nerves.
Props to Hopkins. Conditioning is really going to be the biggest key to me. Hopkins is obviously a pro, but having to be so aware of a dudes power for 12 rounds grinds on you mentally. If anyone can do it, Hopkins can. He's been in there with some killers before. It'll be interesting to see though if he can win a 12 round decision. I don't think any of us are expecting Hopkins to knock out Kovalev. A lot of people on Twitter are expecting Hopkins to be KO'd, he's never been stopped. They expected him to get KO'd multiple times in his career. Good fight on paper, even though I feel like BHOP's only chance is to make it a hugfest.
Yeah Hopkins is definitely going to need to slow Kovalev down, try to cut his work rate in half. Lateral movement, keeping a good distance, trying up when he's close. Kovalev does lunge forward at times so Hopkins really needs to capitalize on that, try to time a few big counters to make Kovalev think twice. Kovalev does have some holes in his game but Hopkins is going to have to rewind the clock and have a Kelly Pavlik like performance again. Not sure if he can do it. I said before Kovalev was the one guy I didn't want to see Bhop fight. Just a tough style at this age - high volume, huge puncher, punches from all angles. I'm surprised he took it when Stevenson was on the table, who stylistically you'd think would be better for Hopkins (doesn't have a high work rate, seems like an idiot, someone Hopkins could set a lot of traps, get inside his head like Pascal).
Looks like it was the same money for Stevenson fight:
A television industry source close to the situation but unauthorized to speak publicly on the matter said Showtime officials are puzzled that Hopkins took the HBO deal, accepting the same purse split of the same $3-million license fee that Showtime offered.
Hopkins will get $2 million, but might be leaving extra Canadian television and live gate money on the table that a Stevenson bout promised.
