Unlike many others, Bernard Hopkins seemed genuinely unsurprised by the number of rounds in which Jake Paul was able to survive against Anthony Joshua.
The internet personality was widely expected to fold within a matter of minutes at the Kaseya Center, Miami, where he faced two-time world champion Joshua earlier today.
Their heavyweight contest, however, swiftly became a far less emphatic affair, with Paul seemingly embarking on a damage limitation mission to hear the final bell.
He did not quite manage that, but nonetheless did enough moving around – while voluntarily dropping to the canvas every so often – to make it into the sixth round.
It was there where he was clobbered with a thudding right hand, forceful enough to orchestrate a fourth knockdown, before failing to meet referee Chris Young’s 10-count.
By that point, Paul, the naturally smaller man, had perhaps been able to claim a moral victory, showcasing his considerable impetus to keep plugging away
At the same time, though, his broken jaw offers enough evidence to confirm that this particular assignment was, quite simply, a step too far.
Yet despite that, former multi-weight world champion Hopkins claims that he had never ruled out the possibility of their bout lasting more than five rounds.
And while that inkling did, in fact, materialise, Hopkins also attests that a Joshua knockout victory was, for him, an almost certain outcome as their fight progressed.
Sharing his immediate reaction with FightHype, the pound-for-pound legend was quick to summarise his pre-fight thoughts, insisting that the longer duration was only ever going to favour ‘AJ’.
“I told you: if it goes past five rounds, it’s a wrap.”
