48-year-old IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (53-6-2, 32 KO’s) says he’s going to go right after his opponent Karo Murat’s nose right off the bat on July 13th in their fight at the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York, USA. This will be Hopkins’ first defense of his title after beating Tavoris Cloud by a 12 round unanimous decision last March to take his title.
Hopkins was hoping to get a bigger fight against the likes of Carl Froch but he had no other choice but to face Murat (25-1-1, 15 KO’s), as he was his mandatory challenger and it was either fight him or risk losing the title by having it stripped from him.
Hopkins said to fightnews.com “He eats jabs. He doesn’t move his head…I will be working on the beak.”