"Bernard recently said that I told him that he would destroy Kovalev if they ever fought. That type of conversation never took place. As a matter of fact, the last time Bernard and I spoke, it was back in October of 2012 when he himself was thinking about boxing Cleverly," stated world-class trainer John David Jackson, who made it clear that, contrary to reports, he never said Hopkins would "destroy" his fighter, newly-crowned IBF light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev. In fact, Jackson is of the opinion that if the two did fight, it would be Hopkins, not Kovalev, who would be in serious jeopardy and he's eager to see his theory played out inside the ring.
"I have the utmost respect for Bernard, but if he fights Sergey, he, not Sergey, would be in trouble. I am not going to try and belittle Bernard. He has had too great of a career to try and do something stupid like that, but he is an old boxer now," Jackson stated during a recent conversation with FightHype.com. "The firepower that Sergey brings to fights is way too much for Bernard at this stage of his career. So rather than keep talking about it, I say this to Hop, 'Beat this guy Murat and then just sign the contract and see if you can school Sergey!'"
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]