Boxing: Bernard Hopkins Dislikes Being Cast in Favorite’s Role against Sergey Kovalev

PHILADELPHIA — He cringed for a moment. Bernard Hopkins, a future first-ballot hall of famer and current all-time great, did not like the word. It was as alien to him as the 49-year-old IBF and WBA light heavyweight world champion is to everyone else, defying logic and nature as a viable, elite fighter in a third decade.