Sergey ?Krusher? Kovalev crushed the ?Alien? Bernard Hopkins to unify the world light heavyweight titles with a dominating shut-out victory before over 8,500 fans at the Boardwalk in Atlantic City in a fight telecast Sunday, Manila Time, by Solar Sports.
The Russian set the tone when he dropped Hopkins who is nearing 50 in the opening round and kept hammering the ageing American with solid right hands even as he used his jab throughout to keep Hopkins from working on the inside.
It was the biggest win in the career of Kovalev who remains unbeaten with a record of 26-0-I with 23 knockouts and there were times in the fight including the twelfth and final round that Kovalev would score a knockout as he had Hopinks wobbly, but he couldn?t put the former champion away.
The 31-year-old Russian had two judges Carlos Ortiz Jr and Clark Sammartino turning in identical 120-107 scorecards while the third judge Larry Layton had it by an even more embarrassing 120-106.
With the dominating performance, Kovalev, who entered the ring as WBO champion, added the IBF and WBA lets to his trophy room.
Super Sport reported that Hopkins ?left the ring with only memories of the good old times? and amidst calls for him to quit said he would go home and think about his future.
In an exciting undercard bout Sadam Ali stopped Carlos Abregu who was at one time shunned as a possible opponent for Manny Pacquiao by his adviser Michael Koncz who considered Abregu a heavy hitter but Ali stopped Abregu in the 9th round to improve his record to 22-0, with 13 knockouts after dropping the fancied Abregu in the sixth and ninth rounds en route to the stoppage which Abregu who dropped to 36-3 with 29 knockouts complained that the stoppage was premature.
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