by David P. Greisman

Bernard Hopkins was far behind on the scorecards and needed a knockout to beat Sergey Kovalev. And while Hopkins had landed a good shot on Kovalev earlier in the round, Kovalev would hurt him in return. Whereas others might’ve taken that as a sign that the knockout wouldn’t come and it was better just to make it to the final bell, Hopkins said that he couldn’t settle for that.”

“I was determined to try to hit him so I could put him down,” Hopkins said at the post-fight press conference. “Did I look like I was trying to survive in the 12th? We was rolling. I could’ve tried to hold him or grab him like most sensible people would’ve tried to do, right? I was trying to swing and hopefully get some shots in.”

Hopkins remained on his feet, wasn’t able to take Kovalev off his own, and wound up losing a shutout decision on the scorecards.

“I wasn’t going to run around and hold and do things to just get by and say I survived,” he said. “Me and Sergey was throwing punches all the way until the bell ring. Yes, I’m always a smart-thinking fighter first, but sometimes you just got to bite down, man.”

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com