Newly unified WBA/IBF/WBO light heavyweight world champion Sergey Kovalev and 49-year-old boxing legend Bernard Hopkins spoke to the press after Kovalev’s decisive victory in their unification fight on Saturday night in Atlantic City.
Sergey Kovalev: “First I want to say the most important thing to me: I’ve reached one of my dreams in professional boxing…Bernard Hopkins is unbelievable despite his age, we went twelve rounds and I have huge respect for him…it wasn’t easier fight than I thought, it was hard, but thankfully I was prepared to go twelve rounds.”
Bernard Hopkins: “Am I going to fight again? That’s like asking a woman after an hour of labor to have another kid…I was trying to turn things around, until the end. Even in the last round until the bell rang…I couldn’t overpower him. I felt like a middleweight in there against a cruiserweight. I simply couldn’t engage…tonight Kovalev was the better man.”