From Russia with glove

Sergey Kovalev of Russia dominated Bernard Hopkins from the opening bell, winning a unanimous decision on Saturday night to stake his claim as the world's best light heavyweight boxer.

Kovalev, who improved to 26-0-1, has three versions of the 175-pound belt after taking two from the 49-year-old Hopkins in the lopsided victory.

Kovalev won by scores of 120-107 from two judges and 120-106 from the third. The 31-year-old Russian took Hopkins' IBF and WBA belts to go with his own WBO title.

Two months shy of 50, Hopkins (55-7-2) could face retirement after a rare title bout where he was never a factor.

Kovalev dropped Hopkins in the opening round and never backed off his punishing pace.

"I wanted to show fans that I know how to box," Kovalev said. "I tried to go for the knockout in the 12th round. He has great defense. He's the best boxer in my division."

Hopkins felt every single one of Kovalev's blows in the 12th - and there were plenty of them.

Kovalev landed 38 punches in the final round, the most ever against Hopkins in 41 fights tracked by CompuBox.

The pro-Hopkins crowd chanted "B-Hop!" and "U-S-A!" to rally the veteran but it didn't work.

Kovalev decked Hopkins with a solid right early in the first round but the Philadelphian bounced right up. Kovalev smelled blood and focused on finishing with a knockout.

He pummeled Hopkins in the final 45 seconds of the third round and was at his best when he backed Hopkins into a corner and unloaded brutal body shots.

Hopkins just wouldn't go down for good. He had his best round in the seventh, landing a couple of rights that had little meaning in the long run.

Kovalev answered in the eighth with a hard right that wobbled Hopkins and kept it up until the 12th.

Respect for Hopkins' Hall of Fame resume was about the only thing that kept the referee from stopping the fight in the late rounds.

"I give him a lot of respect, we both would fight anyone," Hopkins said afterward.

"That's how we ended up here tonight. That's what brought us together."

But did it convince Hopkins to finally hang up his gloves?

"I really don't want to say anything," Hopkins said. "It's been 50-50 for the last nine years."

Hopkins lost his professional debut to Clinton Mitchell at Resorts Casino in Atlantic City in 1988. Kovalev was just 5 years old and living in Chelyabinsk, Russia, at the time.

In 2011, at age 46, Hopkins became the oldest fighter to win a major world championship when he beat Canada's Jean Pascal in Montreal.

He dropped the WBC version of the titlet to Chad Dawson in 2012, setting himself up to break his own record of oldest fighter to win a championship in 2013 with a unanimous decision over Tavoris Cloud.

(China Daily 11/10/2014 page24)