Kovalev defeats Bernard Hopkins
— -- ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Sergey Kovalev put on a dominant performance, unified three light heavyweight world titles and showed that the "Alien" Bernard Hopkins is human after all.
Kovalev dropped Hopkins in the first round, pounded him throughout the one-sided fight and won a shutout decision in a masterful performance before 8,545 on Saturday night at Boardwalk Hall.
Hopkins had made magic at Boardwalk Hall in the past, authoring two of his greatest upsets -- his tour de force against Kelly Pavlik in 2008 and his first light heavyweight championship victory against Antonio Tarver in 2006. But there was no magic on this night.
Instead, there was a 31-year-old powerful Kovalev, in his prime, giving a beating to a 49-year-old man who turns 50 on Jan. 15. In the end, not a single round was even very close as the judges had it for Kovalev 120-107, 120-107 and 120-106. ESPN.com also had it 120-107 for Kovalev, who took two 175-pound belts from Hopkins to add to his own.
"I'm very happy," Kovalev said. "This victory was for my son Aleksandr. I was very excited [Hopkins] didn't get into my head."
Kovalev's wife, Natalia, gave birth to their first child on Oct. 20 in Los Angeles while Kovalev was away for his training camp. He has not seen the boy since he was born, and it was a motivating factor for him against Hopkins.
While Kovalev (26-0-1, 23 KOs), who went past eight rounds for the first time in his career, scored by far his biggest victory, Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOs) never had been so thoroughly dominated in his 26-year, obvious Hall of Fame career.
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