50 year old Bernard "The Alien" Hopkins already held two championship belts and could have played it safe and cherry-picked. Instead last night he fought one of most dangerous fighters in his division, Sergei "Krusher" Kovalev.
Terms like murderous puncher may be thrown around to hype fighters but Kovalev's punching power is without question. In 2011 one of his opponents (Simakov) died of brain injuries following their fight.
Hopkins receives a lot of criticism for a number of reasons including excessive holding, low punch output and some unsportsmanlike behaviour however his fundamental skills, ring IQ and discipline can not be questioned. In facing Kovalev at a time when top fighters half his age look visibly scared at the mention of the Russian fighter's name Hopkins proved he has another intangible in abundance.
Courage.
He may have lost the 12 round fight but I think he won a moral victory last night. I'm just blown away by the fact that he still has the hunger of a young challenger at the age of 50. I do hope he retires now however and goes on to pass on his knowledge as he is a throwback to fighters of a bygone era.
Salute.
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