All good things come to an end. And as good as Bernard Hopkins is, he has finally showed signs of aging. Father Time has once again claimed his victim. When Hopkins stepped into the ring for the 55th time in his career, he looked completely hapless, wounded, and outgunned for the first time ever. Sergey Kovalev won the fight unanimously, and put on a show that showed that he can not only punch with power, but also box according to the game plan for the entire 12 rounds.
After failing to land a fight with Adonis Stevenson, B-Hop took the perilous route of challenging a bigger and stronger guy. In the end, Kovalev proved he had too much juice in his tank. Compubox numbers showed that B-Hop threw only 196 punches, an outrageously small number compared to the number of Kovalev’s punches: 585 punches, almost three times as many as B-Hop. Whether we will see B-Hop again in the ring remains to be seen. But the legend hasn’t shown any signs of hanging the gloves yet.
Another major fight in November was between Manny Pacquiao and Chris Algieri. Algieri earned a shot at the title after winning a controversial split decision win over Ruslan Provodnikov. Hardly anyone gave Algieri a chance, and for good reasons too. He barely has any amateur experience, and his professional record isn’t stellar either. Leading into the fight, he promised to box Pacquiao from the outside, and control the range with his stiff jab. He exuded confidence during interviews and appeared to handle the limelight quite well. But when it comes to boxing, Pacquiao and Algieri clearly occupy a different plane, which was evident on November 22nd.
Algieri’s game plan was dubious. He planned to let Pacquiao run his show for the first four rounds, and open up in the latter rounds. The plan was to knock Pacquiao out. For a guy who has little punching power, it was a very unrealistic plan. Pacquiao, on the other hand, cut off the ring with nimbleness, and despite all of Algieri’s movement, he landed his shots with ease. There were six official knockdowns; two of them, however, were slips. The worst knock down came in round 9 at the worst possible time. Ringside commentator Max Kellerman was talking to Tim Lane, Algieri’s coach, about their game plan. Lane who had been telling Algieri, “we have him where we want to” after every round, said something even more absurd. He said, “I have him in a cage. He is going to put Pacquiao to sleep.” Right at that moment, Pacquiao landed a vicious left that sent Algieri crashing onto the canvas. Pacquiao was looking to end his knockout drought, but couldn’t succeed.
Talks between Floyd Mayweather and Pacquiao have been renewed. Whether they’re real or just more promotional hype, fans are be hoping that the dream fight materializes sometime next May. Pacquiao has been very vocal in the past few weeks, hoping that the fans can be an impetus to the making of the bout.
On November 29th, Terence Crawford faced Ray Beltran. The fight was very lopsided, as Crawford dominated the entire 12 rounds. Beltran wasn’t able to negotiate Crawford jab’s from the southpaw stance.
If Pacquiao can’t fight Mayweather, Jessie Vargas, Danny Garcia, or possibly Terrence Crawford will be in the mix to face him at the junior welterweight division.
