Saturday night at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, feared knockout artist, Sergey Kovalev stepped into the ring with the most dangerous foe of his career, forty nine year old legend, Bernard ‘Alien’ Hopkins. Both fighters held a portion of the light heavyweight crown, with Kovalev being in possession of the WBO crown and Hopkins with the WBA and IBF straps. The much anticipated match up pinned a young, rising star against a crafty veteran who has been testing the limits of the sport like no one before him. Alien vs. Krusher, who would prevail?

The bout started with Kovalev moving towards Hopkins, keeping pressure and making the forty nine year old move. Midway through the round while ‘Alien’ looked to land a jab, Sergey Kovalev came over the top of the jab with a right hand shot that clipped Bernard on the temple and sent him to the canvas. Hopkins was able to get back to his feet and used his defensive skills to not take any more shots for the remainder of the round.

Round one set the pace for the fight, as ‘Krusher’ pressed on with his attack, looking primarily to attack the body and not fall prey to Bernard’s tactics. The jab to the body from Kovalev was a very successful punch for him as it was a punch that he could land without much trouble and didn’t leave himself vulnerable to a counter shot. In round two, Hopkins looked very tentative and focused solely on defense. Meanwhile, the Russian born fighter was very relaxed and was calculated with his attacks.

It was not until round three that ‘Alien’ landed a shot of significance, a quick leaping left hook that landed cleanly but didn’t bother his opponent much. The same pattern repeated for the next few rounds, Bernard Hopkins falling behind on the scorecards more and more with each passing round. In between rounds, Brother Naazim Richardson urged Hopkins to believe in his defense and to let his punches go. Aside from an occasional lead right, Richardson’s pleas went largely unanswered.

Even though Bernard Hopkin was having no success, he question still remained, what would happen if Hopkins was able to take the unbeaten fighter into the deep waters, a place that Kovalev is not familiar with? As the late round neared, no signs indicated that any sort of change was coming, just more of the same. In the tenth round, Hopkins began to take more chances and had his moments — unfortunately they were few and far between and with each risk Bernard took, he put himself in a position where he could be caught and hurt.

Leading into the championship rounds, Bernard Hopkins’ corner was very clear in saying that nothing but a knockout would salvage a win, while in Kovalev’s corner, John David Jackson motivated Kovalev and told him to follow the strategy that they had been working on from round one. Round twelve was a dynamic round in which both men went on the attack. For the first time in the fight Bernard Hopkins mocked Kovalev and stuck his tongue out at him — this only angered the Russian boxer and he battered Hopkins for the remainder of the round.

‘Krusher’ never let the fight slip out of his control and through the twelve scheduled rounds he was by far the busier and more effective fighter. He fought in a way that left Hopkins one of two choices; defend and ride out the fight or gamble and risk getting knocked out by one of the most vicious punchers in the sport today. Hopkins had shocked the minds of many by beating the likes of Kelly Pavlik, Tavoris Cloud and Jean Pascal, but Sergey Kovalev proved to be too much at this stage.

The landslide scores came in, 120-107, 120-107, 120-106 all in favor of Sergey Kovalev. The final punch stats proved the dominance of Kovalev, as he landed 166 punches as opposed to 65 from Hopkins.

After the fight, both Bernard and Sergey commented on the fight and their respective futures.

Sergey Kovalev: “Very tough opponent, he’s very good at keeping distance.”

“I respect him but he needs to stop his career I think because he already did a lot in the boxing world and he needs to give opportunity to the younger guys”

“My goal was not to knock him out, I needed to keep control for the whole fight.”

“He touched me with good punches but he didn’t hurt me.”

“I tried to knock him out but he had very good defense, he’s the best boxer in my weight division, after me.”

“I’m sure that Bernard will beat Adonis, it’s my opinion.”

Bernard Hopkins: “The better man was Kovalev, he had a good gameplan, nice and rangy. He stayed outside when he got hit with punches. When he did get hit he stepped back, he didn’t try to engage. He fought a great technical fight.”

“He’s gonna be around for a long time, as long he wants to he will be around for a long time and I got respect for a guy that comes to fight and wants to fight everybody, that’s what boxing should be about. Through Goldenboy and HBO, that’s how we’re gonna set the standards from now on”

“I would not disclose anything right now, it’s 50-50 what I’m gonna do. I’ve represented boxing well and I’ve represented Philadelphia well. I will think about it.”

The win for Sergey Kovalev marks the high point in a career that was often in the shadows due to his limited exposure and level of opposition, but now with a win over one of the greatest fighters of all time in Bernard Hopkins, Kovalev has turned the page and should find himself getting bigger fights and pay days going forward.

The future for Hopkins on the other hand is still open for the soon to be fifty year old fighter even though he was thoroughly dominated, as he is one of the stars of the sport and he showed even at his age, he is better than a lot of other fighters in the division. One option for Hopkins that could present itself is possibly moving down in weight and taking on some of the champions and contenders at super middleweight. A fight between Hopkins and WBO champion Arthur Abraham would be an interesting encounter and one that Hopkins could do favorably in, and maybe capture a title in a weight class that he has never won a title in.

The fight this past Saturday night was a passing of the torch in regards to the light heavyweight division as the old champion put up a good fight, but the younger champion was too much and seems to be a fighter that can carry the torch for a long time to come.