Hopkins 'ready' to take on Kovalev

SEVENTEEN DAYS separate us from what, on paper, is perhaps the most intriguing fight of the year, and already Bernard Hopkins is "fired up" for Nov. 8 at Boardwalk Hall.

"I really am. I'm really ready for this fight," Hopkins, 49-year-old Philadelphia boxing icon, said yesterday on a conference call with reporters to preview his light heavyweight unification bout against Sergey Kovalev.

"I'm ready to show people in Atlantic City that Atlantic City ain't dead and Bernard Hopkins definitely ain't dead."

Hopkins, who turns 50 on Jan. 15, said a win "in grand fashion" over Kovalev, the 31-year-old Russian nicknamed "Krusher," would make for "a bold statement," perhaps even more so than his 2001 upset of Tito Trinidad or his 2008 triumph over Kelly Pavlik, also at Boardwalk Hall. Kovalev, after all, has ended 23 of his 26 fights via knockouts, not needing more than seven rounds to do so in any of his six 12-round bouts.

Hopkins, who has never been knocked out in 65 professional fights, has studied Kovalev to the point where he said he knows "everything about him," as he says he does with all his opponents. He said he even dug up tape of Kovalev as an amateur.

Kovalev, who revealed yesterday on the conference call that his wife gave birth Monday to the couple's first son, kept mum on questions regarding his strategy entering the fight. As his training camp in Big Bear Lake, Calif., winds down, he said the newest addition in his family has provided even more motivation for the fight.

"Now I understand for who I am doing everything in my career," Kovalev said. "I'm doing this not for me but this is for my family."

Hopkins noted that "this is not just another fight." There's no doubt pitting the smart and savvy veteran who rarely gets hit cleanly against one of the sport's hardest punchers - and another opponent young enough to be his son - could make for the most fascinating Hopkins' fight in quite a while.

"See, one thing about Bernard Hopkins' fights, normally . . . you can sort of get a sense of how this fight's going to go after so many rounds, whatever that round is - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, whatever," Hopkins said. "Now, that's not getting mistaken - the fight's not over until somebody gets knocked out or 12 rounds ends. But there's a pattern where you understand [when] Kovalev is not being the guy he was 10, five, three, four fights ago.

"And so when I disarm him, don't be upset. Just enjoy the artwork. Enjoy Miles Davis. Enjoy the jazz that will be played among the breeze in the air at the Convention Boardwalk Hall, Nov. 8 on HBO. Enjoy. The concert's going to be great."