Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev opened up his camp to the media today in preparation for his Nov. 8 light heavyweight unification bout with Bernard “The Alien” Hopkins at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ and live on HBO World Championship Boxing®.
Question: How do you study Hopkins?
Sergey Kovalev: “I don’t study anybody. It is better to go to the gym to do some work for my shape or spend time to cook my breakfast or sleep in my bed. Why I need to spend the time?”
World Boxing Organization (WBO) light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (25-0-1, 23 KOs) is ready for any dirty tricks IBF/WBA light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (55-6-2, 32 KOs) plans on using in their unification fight next month on November 8th on HBO at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Kovalev says he plans on fighting dirty if the 49-year-old Hopkins fights dirty. He says he’s going to fight a clean fight, but if Hopkins wants to take it to another level and start getting physical with him then he’ll accommodate him by playing the same way.
IBF/WBA light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (55-6-2, 32 KOs) might be nearing 50-years-old and losing punching power, but he still feels he’s at a higher level than his opponent WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (25-0-1, 23 KOs) who he’ll be facing on November 8th on HBO Championship Boxing at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Hopkins thinks he’s going to take the hard hitting Russian Kovalev to school next month and show him the difference between the levels he fights at and the one Kovalev has been fighting at during his career.
WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (25-0-1, 23 KOs) says he has no specific game plan for his fight next month against the more experienced and much older 49-year-old IBF/WBA 175 pound champion Bernard Hopkins (55-6-2, 32 KOs) on November 8th at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA.
Kovalev’s style of fighting is one oriented around him going all-out in an attack mode to try and score a quick knockout. He’s throws a lot of heavy combinations, putting a massive of pressure on his opponents. His opposition generally fold pretty quickly even with them fighting 100% a defensive fight. They’re unable to stand up to Kovalev’s power for long with him throwing combinations with huge power.
The Kovalevs are expecting their son any day now, with the official due date scheduled for October 17. Despite the stress and distractions that come with expectant-parenthood, the 31-year-old Kovalev assured everyone at his media day at Wolf Total Fitness in Big Bear City, Calif. yesterday that his focus is still fixated 100 percent on Hopkins, “I’m living for this fight. Only for this fight. I’m leaving for Florida when my [first] baby is due. I’ll be in training camp in Florida because this is the most important thing in my life right now.”
Boxing is at it’s most exciting when it’s highly skilled, competitive, back and forth fighting with plenty of drama. It peaks when a fighter is hurt and the crowd screams as killer instincts and the will to survive are on full display.
It’s rare to get life changing fights, both for the fighters and fans, such as the grueling Castillo vs. Corrales, but once in a while, a fight has all the right elements to captivate the public. A shaken Froch, climbing off the canvas to slowly dominate Groves and score a controversial stoppage, brought in an 80,000 plus crowd to Wembley stadium for the rematch.
BERNARD HOPKINS, WBA & IBF Light Heavyweight World Champion
“When fighters want to fight, this is what happens. When we really want to do it and our promoters do as well, we get it done.
WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (25-0-1, 23 KOs) plans on adding 49-year-old Bernard Hopkins’ scalp to his resume on November 8th in what he feels will make history for him and put his name up there with the other top fighters in the sport of boxing. In addition, Kovalev will capture Hopkins’ IBF and WBA 175lb titles, and that would give Kovalev 3 of the 4 world titles at light heavyweight.
“I’m happier I’m going to be fighting Bernard Hopkins there [Atlantic City] because that’s going to put my name into the history of boxing,” Kovalev said via RingTV.com. “Most likely, also, I’m going to be making history in boxing by winning against Bernard Hopkins. That’s going to put me in the top tier,” Kovalev said.
IBF/WBA light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (55-6-2, 32 KOs) thinks that some boxing fans are hoping to a high degree that WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (25-0-1, 23 KOs) will knock him out in their unification fight on November 8th in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Hopkins believes for some fans, they’ve circled their wagons around Kovalev and embraced him as the guy that can finally put him down after all these years and put him in his place by showing him that he should have retired like they wanted to.
49-year-old Bernard Hopkins (55-6-2, 32 KOs) has surprised a lot of boxing fans by being able to come back from a 12 round decision loss to Chad Dawson in 2012 and turning things around by winning his last three fights against Tavoris Cloud, Karo Murat and Beibut Shumenov.
Hopkins was seen as nearing the end of his career when Dawson beat him, but Hopkins has definitely turns things around with his last three wins. While it was nice that Hopkins beat Cloud, Murat and Shumenov, the wins were still largely shallow ones given how vulnerable all three of those fighters were.