On his 48th birthday Tuesday, Bernard Hopkins was trash-talking with 81-year-old Don King about fighting 31-year-old Tavoris Cloud.
“The old moves on and the young comes on,” bellowed King, who promotes Cloud, the IBF light heavyweight champion.
Hopkins, a former middleweight and light heavyweight champion, continues to fight at an age when most boxers are long retired.
“Age is not an enemy to me,” he said. “The clock is nothing I’m trying stop. But Cloud’s not going to bring anything style-wise that I haven’t seen before.”
The press conference Tuesday to announce their light heavyweight title fight March 9 at Barclays Center kicked off the first busy week in what figures to be a significant year of boxing in the metropolitan area.
On Saturday, Main Events continues its association with the NBC Sports Network by presenting a doubleheader of 10-round bouts from the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. Russian light heavyweight Sergey Kovalev faces Gabriel Campillo in the main event.
Meanwhile, HBO will broadcast a triple-header from the Garden Theater on Saturday night. Undefeated Mikey Garcia challenges Orlando Salido for the WBO featherweight title and Gennady “GGG” Golovkin defends his WBA middleweight crown against Gabriel Rosado.
On Friday, former middleweight champion Yuri Foreman of Brooklyn continues his comeback from a near two-year layoff with an open workout, looking toward his Jan. 23 return at B.B. King’s. On Jan. 25, Star Boxing will stage its first boxing card of 2013 at the Paramount in Huntington, N.Y., with Philadelphia’s Raymond Serrano taking on Emmanuel Taylor of Baltimore in a junior welterweight battle on Showtime.
There was a time when boxing shows of note in the area were few and far between, but in recent years — especially with the emergence of the Barclays Center — early 2013 is rich with intriguing events.
Beyond this week, Zab Judah of Brooklyn will challenge junior welterweight champion Danny Garcia from Philadelphia on Feb. 9 at Barclays and WBC lightweight champ Adrien Broner continues his rise to fame with a Feb. 16 date with Gavin Rees in Atlantic City.
Boxing in 2012 ended on the upswing with NBC and CBS televising live cards for the first time in more than a decade. Ratings were strong, and there are plans for more televised bouts in the near future. Showtime delivered quality fights topped off by Austin Trout’s upset of Miguel Cotto at the Garden on Dec. 1, and HBO capped its year with Juan Manuel Marquez’s stunning knockout of Manny Pacquiao.
This year, we must wonder: What will become of Pacquiao? And how will Floyd Mayweather look after taking nearly off after spending two months in jail? Is Broner ready to be Mayweather’s heir apparent or will it be Canelo Alvarez? Is Trout for real and is Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios the next Jake LaMotta?
HBO’s is pushing Golovkin (24-0, 21 KOs) of Germany as its next big star in anticipation of a showdown with Sergio Martinez. And where does the limited but entertaining Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. fit into this mix?
At 48, Hopkins remains interesting as he tries to beat his own record of being the oldest man at 46 to win a world title. But the future is with boxers such as Mikey Garcia, Danny Garcia, Broner and Golovkin.
In New York, the future is now.