Bernard Hopkins will try to break his own record as the oldest boxer to win a major title when he fights unbeaten Tavoris Cloud in New York on Saturday night.

The all-American showdown for Cloud's IBF light-heavyweight belt pits the 31-year-old champion, making his fifth title defence, against a boxer old enough to be his father.

"I'm not counting age. Everybody else is counting it," the 48-year-old Hopkins, who has won only one of his past four bouts, said on Thursday.

"People know I still can win a championship and beat most of these fighters out here and they are trying to use my age as something that is a death sentence. I've been hearing 'old' since I was 35."

Hopkins was 46 in 2011 when he beat Canada's Jean Pascal to win the WBC light-heavyweight title, becoming the oldest fighter to win a major title and surpassing heavyweight icon George Foreman's mark of 45.

Now 25 years after his first professional fight, Hopkins wants to make history again.

"It will mean a lot to me," he said. "I doubt you will see a longevity in any sport of a Bernard Hopkins in a long time; not in my lifetime.

"What drives me is that I'm not satisfied, even though I know I've done a lot. If I listened to most people, I would have never made history."

But even Hopkins, who has not fought since dropping a 12-round majority decision to Chad Dawson last April, knows Father Time is catching up to him.

"It must stop soon. It will. Everybody has to recognise that," Hopkins said. "Time is undefeated. No one can beat time."

Cloud, 24-0 with 19 knockouts, was confident of keeping his crown.

"Nobody can guarantee knockouts but I can guarantee a victory," Cloud said. "I did everything that I could possibly do in training to get that type of victory. He could be ripe for the picking. We'll know once he gets hit a couple of times."

He refuses to let age get the better of him, but Hopkins, whose record is 52-6, with two drawn and 32 knockouts, intends to enforce the retirement of another legend of the sport, promoter Don King, by ending Cloud's reign.

Having once managed Hopkins's career, the 81-year-old King is now in charge of his opponent.

"What a way to put the last nail in the coffin," Hopkins said. "I know I'm not fighting his promoter but if you don't have any goods on the shelf, nobody's going to come, and you have to eventually pack up and go.

"Whoever thought it would be me that would shut him down? No one."