IBR on The Cruelest Sport

“There is a natural inclination to frame any fight involving Bernard Hopkins strictly within his narrative. Since he stopped Felix Trinidad thirteen years ago, Hopkins has used his skills for fighting and filibustering to control the lenses through which the audience interprets a fight. But that changed last night. Last night, at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, Sergey Kovalev became the story. Kovalev dominated Hopkins over twelve shockingly uncompetitive rounds, and in winning a unanimous decision handed Hopkins the worst defeat of his incredible career.”

Read Passive Resistance: Sergey Kovalev W12 Bernard Hopkins on The Cruelest Sport.

IBR on The Cruelest Sport

“For years, Hopkins was boxing’s most self-righteous anti-establishmentarian, a mad rebel fit for the pages of Dostoevsky. He wore that distinction with the same defiant pride with which he sported his prison stint, jumbled teeth, and bedlamite ring attire. But Hopkins, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, embraced his role as indignant pariah for only as long as such dissentience served him. Once welcomed by the establishment, Hopkins stuffed his megaphone in his soapbox and buried both in his multi-car garage. This is what survivors do, and Hopkins, at 49 years-old, is boxing’s survivor par excellence.”

Read Old Age is a Massacre: Bernard Hopkins-Sergey Kovalev Preview on The Cruelest Sport. .

IBR on The Cruelest Sport

“He remained upright for longer than one would expect of 38-1 underdog, which might explain why he lingered so long on the canvas after succumbing to the reality reflected in those odds. In the seventh round, his insides pulped, Cedric Agnew took a knee in the ring erected in The Ballroom in Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, and remained there well after he was counted out—a man broken physically and emotionally by the appropriately nicknamed “Krusher,” Sergey Kovalev.”

Read The Wither Man: Sergey Kovalev KO7 Cedric Agnew on The Cruelest Sport.