Hopkins Makes History But Now What?

0
1267

It was dubbed history at the capital. But would it be Beibut Shumenov making history, dethroning a living legend, or the old man Bernard Hopkins being the oldest man in boxing to unify world titles?

Shumenov entered with the eye of the tiger as his intro, but would that be the theme? Well in the start, it was much to do about nothing.

In the second round there may have been urgency to begin but the drama let down once again.

Hopkins landed a big right to end the 3rd, but as we continue, it was easy to follow this fight through 3 rounds as not much was happening, which was expected.

So as Hopkins smiled and jawed at Shumenov, not much was returning from the WBA champion. The straight right was landing for Hopkins giving the crowd something to cheer about.

Shumenov fell for bluffs and feints and ran into counters all night. School was in session.

Yes, the teacher was 49 years old in a class where he should have retired from long ago.

But he kept on, schooling the younger fighter. Instead of throwing and being active, Shumenov fell into the Hopkins trap, threw nothing and lost because, well that’s what Hopkins does. Dropping Shumenov in the 10th was sort of an exclamation to his performance.

Round after round, the result was imminent. With every right hand that Hopkins landed and every non chance Shumenov would take, the legend grew.

It grew with every round, making Shumenov a less credible opponent as every second ticked down. The same Shumenov that lost 20 out of 24 rounds to Gabriel Campillo but he never got the credit for it.

Hopkins won and become the oldest man to unify titles.

So now what? A Stevenson showdown? Is that what we look forward to? Certainly Showtime will but if Hopkins wins, will he fight Kovalev? If Stevenson wins, does he fight Kovalev? Well that’s the cold war where the winner is surely not the fans.