by David P. Greisman

Bernard Hopkins was a 49-year-old against a 31-year-old foe. This was not new to Hopkins; he’d faced and defeated many a younger foe before. And while he lost to Sergey Kovalev by shutout on Saturday night, Hopkins used his post-fight press conference to praise Kovalev’s strategy and skills, not putting forth any excuses whatsoever for the defeat..

“I don’t like to lose. My track record shows that,” Hopkins said. But, he said, to say that Kovalev won because of Hopkins’ age would be “taking away from him — and I don’t think nobody should do that.”

“I know for a fact that win, lose or draw, I don’t go out saying I’m 49 because things didn’t go my way,” he said. “Because if you ain’t supposed to be in there you shouldn’t be in the ring, no matter what age you are.”

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