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Hopkins and Kovalev NYC and Philadelphia Presser Quotes

Published

10 years ago

September 3, 2014

The Sweet Science

BERNARD HOPKINS AND SERGEY KOVALEV NEW YORK CITY PRESS CONFERENCE AND PHILADELPHIA MEDIA ROUNTABLE

QUOTES AND PHOTOS

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS FROM PHILADELPHIA/NYC

Photo Credit: Hogan Photos/Golden Boy Promotions

NEW YORK (Sept. 2, 2014) –Bernard “The Alien” Hopkins and Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev held a press conference in New York City and a media roundtable in Philadelphia Tuesday to officially announce their light heavyweight unification bout on Saturday, Nov. 8 taking place at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City live on HBO World Championship Boxing^®.

Check out what the fighters and promoters had to say below:

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.

“I take everything I do extremely seriously. But people ask me, how can I continue to do this? I have no plan or timetable when I put my mind to something.

“I want the best. Hagler fought the best. Ray Leonard fought the best. The Alis of the world, they fought the best. I’m from the era where I fought the best and that’s important to me. I receive undisputed status in 2001 and that was special.

“I bloomed late. I didn’t bloom by the timing of the experts. I want to make it as difficult as possible for you to come up with a headline for me. I don’t want to be on the pound-for-pound list because that would make me human.

“What I’m doing now is making a new legacy and a new list and a new way to judge. ‘Where do we put this man? We can’t put him in the top 10. He’s doing things no one has done!’

“Enjoy this while you can and come see it. Don’t worry about when or how I’m going to leave or break down. You guys are all humans, I understand you, but you don’t understand me.

“The last time I heard, he [Kovalev] can box. He’s shown that he can box…People are traumatized by the punch and the knockout.

“I’ve been in the game for almost three decades. I look for more of what a guy brings to a gunfight other than bullets…The sweet science is not based on only one thing you can do particularly well.

“If he comes in the game thinking a punch is all he’ll need, he might be right, so you should watch.

“I’m walking a tightrope hundreds of feet in the air. He crushes people. Only three or four people survive his hammer.

“There’s no pressure on me but one thing that is on Bernard Hopkins – that no other fighter really has to do deal with because they’ve never been in my situation is – how I continue to keep making history

“Anybody at the right time and the right place can get knocked out. It is his job to do what others try to do. It is my job to do what I’ve been doing.

“Come November 8 on HBO you get to watch artwork. You’re watching Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong with gloves on.

“It’s such a testimony to see a 50-year-old man – less than 100 days from now – go 30 plus minutes with a young strong Russian puncher and not get a scratch on him.

“I understand humans have a timeline of when they are supposed to go. Age 35 and you’re done – I don’t care what sport you’re in. It’s a fact. I don’t know what type of evidence I need to show I’m an alien other than what is there.”

SERGEY KOVALEV, WBO Light Heavyweight World Champion

“It is not easy to overlook Hopkins. I think when he’s 60 years old he’ll be in the same condition. He’s an alien, but I have to send him to the moon and maybe from there he’ll go by himself to Mars.

“I want to say that one day in Big Bear when I trained, I met Oscar De La Hoya and asked him to sign me and he turned me down, but now here we are on different sides.

“I am not a talker, I am a fighter and I am sure Bernard will promote the fight for both of us.

“I don’t really understand what Bernard is saying. It doesn’t matter what he says. Even if I understood, I wouldn’t care. I don’t worry about him. I’ll go into the ring and do my job.

“Bernard talks and fights. I just fight.

“I can’t say what the fight will be like. This is boxing and anything can happen.

“It is my secret what I will do on fight night. I will give it my all and come out with the win.”

OSCAR DE LA HOYA, President & Founder of Golden Boy Promotions

“This fight is the best against the best in the light heavyweight division.

“I really do feel that this is not just a fight, but an event. I am glad that it’s on HBO and I’m glad its not on pay-per-view, which it easily could have been, but you have to give credit to the fighters who are doing it for the fans.

“I believe that many people over the years have doubted Bernard Hopkins. He’s over 40-years-old, how can he win? All of those questions are no longer being asked. Everything that he does, he deserves.

“At 49-years-old, being the oldest champion in any sport, he deserves tons of respect. The fact that he’s facing the ‘Krusher,’ is just another of the many dangerous fighters that Bernard has faced.

“Being the best middleweight in the history of this sport, with 20 defenses and now to be 49 at light heavyweight, he’s still going strong. I’m now convinced he is an Alien.”

KATHY DUVA, CEO of Main Events

“This fight is going to be the most anticipated fight of 2014. It’s so much fun putting together a fight like this that everyone wants to see. Its great to see the excitement level and the anticipation, you can feel it in the air.

“This is going to be a tremendous event. It’s one of those fights that when the bell rings you really won’t know what is going to happen. It’s not about finding out who’s best, its about who is going to win the fight, because both are great.

“This is what boxing is supposed to be and we look forward to November 8.

“The first person I thought of when I saw Sergey Kovalev in the ring was Ray Leonard. I saw the look in his eye and I could tell he was different. I believe he is the most electrifying boxer in the world of boxing and he will prove it on November 8.”

KEN CONDON, Caesar’s Entertainment Consultant

“This is an Atlantic City fight, it’s in Bernard’s backyard and this is where the fight belongs.

“Sergey has also developed a great following from his last two fights in Atlantic City.

“Caesar’s stepped up to the plate and continued its tradition of great championship boxing in Atlantic City. We believe in the future of Atlantic City and we believe in boxing. We expect a sellout on November 8.”

AARON DAVIS, NJSAC Director

“November 8 is going to be a nice fight with premier fighters and premier promoters. We want to keep on the legacy that we have created in New Jersey.”

# # #

Hopkins vs. Kovalev, a 12-round unification bout for the IBF, WBA and WBO Light Heavyweight World titles, taking place at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City on Saturday, November 8 is presented by Golden Boy Promotions and Main Events in association with Caesars Atlantic City, Corona Extra, AT&T and Hortitsia Vodka.

Tickets priced at $300, $200, $150, $100 and $50, plus applicable fees and service charges, go on sale on Friday, Sept. 5 at noon ET and will be available for purchase at the Boardwalk Hall box office, by calling Ticketmaster at (800) 736-1420 or online at www.ticketmaster.com.

For more information, visit www.goldenboypromotions.com, www.mainevents.com, www.hbo.com/boxing or http://www.boardwalkhall.com/.

Follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GoldenBoyBoxing, www.twitter.com/main_events, www.twitter.com/hboboxing,www.twitter.com/THEREALBHOP, www.twitter.com/krusherkovalev and www.twitter.com/BoardwalkHall.

Become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GoldenBoyBoxing, www.facebook.com/maineventsboxing, www.facebook.com/hboboxing and https://www.facebook.com/BoardwalkHall.

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2015 Fight of the Year – Francisco Vargas vs Takashi Miura

Published

9 years ago

January 4, 2016

The Sweet Science

The WBC World Super Featherweight title bout between Francisco Vargas and Takashi Miura came on one of the biggest boxing stages of 2015, as the bout served as the HBO pay-per-view’s co-main event on November 21st, in support of Miguel Cotto vs Saul Alvarez.

Miura entered the fight with a (29-2-2) record and he was making the fifth defense of his world title, while Vargas entered the fight with an undefeated mark of (22-0-1) in what was his first world title fight. Both men had a reputation for all-out fighting, with Miura especially earning high praise for his title defense in Mexico where he defeated Sergio Thompson in a fiercely contested battle.

The fight started out hotly contested, and the intensity never let up. Vargas seemed to win the first two rounds, but by the fourth round, Miura seemed to pull ahead, scoring a knock-down and fighting with a lot of confidence. After brawling the first four rounds, Miura appeared to settle into a more technical approach. Rounds 5 and 6 saw the pendulum swing back towards Vargas, as he withstood Miura’s rush to open the fifth round and the sixth round saw both men exchanging hard punches.

The big swinging continued, and though Vargas likely edged Miura in rounds 5 and 6, Vargas’ face was cut in at least two spots and Miura started to assert himself again in rounds 7 and 8. Miura was beginning to grow in confidence while it appeared that Vargas was beginning to slow down, and Miura appeared to hurt Vargas at the end of the 8th round.

Vargas turned the tide again at the start of the ninth round, scoring a knock down with an uppercut and a straight right hand that took Miura’s legs and sent him to the canvas. Purely on instinct, Miura got back up and continued to fight, but Vargas was landing frequently and with force. Referee Tony Weeks stepped in to stop the fight at the halfway point of round 9 as Miura was sustaining a barrage of punches.

Miura still had a minute and a half to survive if he was going to get out of the round, and it was clear that he was not going to stop fighting.

A back and forth battle of wills between two world championship level fighters, Takashi Miura versus “El Bandido” Vargas wins the 2015 Fight of the Year.

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Jan 9 in Germany – Feigenbutz and De Carolis To Settle Score

Published

9 years ago

January 4, 2016

The Sweet Science

This coming Saturday, January 9th, the stage is set at the Baden Arena in Offenburg, Germany for a re-match between Vincent Feigenbutz and Giovanni De Carolis. The highly anticipated re-match is set to air on SAT.1 in Germany, and Feigenbutz will once again be defending his GBU and interim WBA World titles at Super Middleweight.

The first meeting between the two was less than three months ago, on October 17th and that meeting saw Feigenbutz controversially edge De Carolis on the judge’s cards by scores of (115-113, 114-113 and 115-113). De Carolis scored a flash knock down in the opening round, and he appeared to outbox Feigenbutz in the early going, but the 20 year old German champion came on in the later rounds.

The first bout is described as one of the most crowd-pleasing bouts of the year in Germany, and De Carolis and many observers felt that the Italian had done enough to win.

De Carolis told German language website RAN.DE that he was more prepared for the re-match, and that due to the arrogance Feigenbutz displayed in the aftermath of the first fight, he was confident that he had won over some of the audience. Though De Carolis fell short of predicting victory, he promised a re-vamped strategy tailored to what he has learned about Feigenbutz, whom he termed immature and inexperienced.

The stage is set for Feigenbutz vs De Carolis 2, this Saturday January 9th in Offenburg, Germany. If you can get to the live event do it, if not you have SAT.1 in Germany airing the fights, and The Boxing Channel right back here for full results.

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2015 Knock Out of the Year – Saul Alvarez KO’s James Kirkland

Published

9 years ago

December 29, 2015

The Sweet Science

On May 9th of 2015, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez delivered a resonant knock-out of James Kirkland on HBO that wins the 2015 KO of the Year.

The knock-out itself came in the third round, after slightly more than two minutes of action. The end came when Alvarez delivered a single, big right hand that caught Kirkland on the jaw and left him flat on his back after spinning to the canvas.Alvarez was clearly the big star heading into the fight. The fight was telecast by HBO for free just one week after the controversial and disappointing Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao fight, and Alvarez was under pressure to deliver the type of finish that people were going to talk about. Kirkland was happy to oblige Alvarez, taking it right to Alvarez from the start. Kirkland’s aggression saw him appear to land blows that troubled the young Mexican in the early going. Alvarez played good defense, and he floored Kirkland in the first round, displaying his power and his technique in knocking down an aggressive opponent.

However, Kirkland kept coming at Alvarez and the fight entered the third round with both men working hard and the feeling that the fight would not go the distance. Kirkland continued to move forward, keeping “Canelo” against the ropes and scoring points with a barrage of punches while looking for an opening.

At around the two minute mark, Alvarez landed an uppercut that sent Kirkland to the canvas again. Kirkland got up, but it was clear that he did not have his legs under him. Kirkland was going to try to survive the round, but Alvarez had an opportunity to close out the fight. The question was would he take it?

Alvarez closed in on Kirkland, putting his opponent’s back to the ropes. Kirkland was hurt, but he was still dangerous, pawing with punches and loading up for one big shot.

But it was the big shot “Canelo” threw that ended the night. Kirkland never saw it coming, as he was loading up with a huge right hand of his own. The right Alvarez threw cracked Kirkland in the jaw, and his eyes went blank. His big right hand whizzed harmlessly over the head of a ducking Alvarez, providing the momentum for the spin that left Kirkland prone on the canvas.

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez went on to defeat Miguel Cotto in his second fight of 2015 and he is clearly one of boxing’s biggest stars heading into 2016. On May 9th Alvarez added another reel to his highlight film when he knocked out James Kirkland with the 2015 “Knock Out of the Year”.

Photo by naoki fukuda

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