ATLANTIC CITY ? Less than two hours after receiving a beating in the ring like he hasn’t seen or felt in years, Bernard Hopkins still had a smile on his somewhat swollen face, a twinkle in his eye and his legendary sense of humor.
What the 49-year-old future Hall of Fame boxer didn’t have was a plan for a future that became considerably more cloudy after his shutout loss to Russian knockout artist Sergey Kovalev before more than 8,500 raucous fans at Boardwalk Hall who were there Saturday night to witness history.
He did not blame age for his subpar performance. There was no “Alien” talk afterwards, no green mask anywhere to be seen. Kovalev proved Hopkins is human after all.
“Win, lose or draw, I don’t go out saying I didn’t win because I’m 49. If you ain’t supposed to be in the ring, it don’t matter what age you are,” Hopkins said.
Of course, media at the postfight news conference wanted to know what’s next for the man who just lost two light-heavyweight belts and some well-earned swagger?
“Asking me if I’m going to fight right now is like asking a woman who just had nine hours of labor if she’s going to have another baby,” Hopkins joked.
That’s about all he would offer on the subject. But his longtime friend, business partner and onetime knockout victim, Oscar De La Hoya, didn’t see the end of a brilliant 26-year career as being imminent.
The Golden Boy, whose company co-promoted the fight with Main Events, suggested perhaps Hopkins could come down in weight and fight the likes of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., or even undefeated middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, which drew some guffaws from the audience.
