By Keith Idec

ATLANTIC CITY – Sergey Kovalev offered Blake Caparello some blunt, concise advice through third parties.

“He better learn how to run,” Kovalev said.

Caparello can box, but the Australian southpaw is a 12-1 underdog given little chance by most boxing experts of upsetting Kovalev (24-0-1, 22 KOs) and sabotaging Kovalev’s tentatively scheduled showdown with IBF/WBA light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (56-5-2, 32 KOs, 2 NC).

“I want to try to knock him out quickly,” Kovalev said. “We’ll see in the ring. I want to show people that I can punch, how I can box. I’m interested, too, what I can show in the ring [Saturday night].”

His desire to stop his opponent quickly at Revel’s Ovation Hall aside, Kovalev respects Caparello (19-0-1, 6 KOs) for accepting their scheduled 12-round fight for his WBO light heavyweight title. When pressed to talk more about Caparello’s chances, Kovalev refrained from degrading a huge underdog that’ll clearly face the toughest test of his career in the second of three bouts HBO will televise as a split-site “Boxing After Dark” tripleheader (9:45 p.m. ET).

“I don’t like to speak about any fights,” Kovalev said. “I just like to show in the ring what I can do. I’m not a talker. I’m a fighter. Everybody’s interested in, ‘What? What? What?’ I don’t know what. It’s a fight. Anything can happen. That’s boxing. One punch can change everything.”

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.