ATLANTIC CITY -- Bernard Hopkins (173 1/2) and Sergey Kovalev (174 1/2) each easily made weight Friday at Caesars Atlantic City for their light heavyweight title bout Saturday at Boardwalk Hall, but it was far from the biggest news of the day.

Hopkins' promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, said Hopkins wants a match with the highly popular middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin in his next bout, when he'd be 50 years old. Golovkin's trainer said he would be interested in the fight for his man.

"If Hopkins wins Saturday -- I mean, when he wins Saturday -- he wants Golovkin next," De La Hoya exclusively told Yahoo Sports. "I'm serious. He wants big fights and that's a huge fight."

Golovkin's promoter, Tom Loeffler, said he has great interest in the fight, but weight would be a big issue.

“I think it would be an interesting fight, one of the biggest fights of the next year, but there are a lot of things that would need to be agreed to,” Loeffler said. “I don’t think it would be realistic for Gennady to fight above 168. Other than that, it would be a huge fight."

Golovkin has a planned February fight in Monte Carlo against Martin Murray, but Hopkins-Golovkin would make for a big pay-per-view main event in the spring.

View photos Gennady Golovkin is 31-0 with 28 KOs. (Photo by Jonathan Moore/Getty Images) More

Abel Sanchez, Golovkin's trainer, said he would have no problem with the fight for his man, even though it's two weight classes about where he normally competes. He said it would be up to Golovkin's management and promotional team to decide if they want to fight Hopkins, but he said he thought it would be a good fight for Golovkin.

"From my standpoint, I would love it," said Sanchez, who turns 59 on Saturday. "I think it's a good fight for Gennady. We'd like to negotiate and hopefully get it at 169, 170, but if we have to fight full light heavyweight [175 pounds], no problem. That all has to be talked about and negotiated and everything, but if they ask me as his trainer 'Can he do it?' and 'Do you like the fight?' I'd say yes to both of them. No question."

Peter Nelson, the vice president of programming for HBO Sports, confirmed to Yahoo Sports that Hopkins wants the fight. Asked if HBO was interested in the bout, he grinned.

"Who wouldn't want to see that fight?" Nelson said.

Golovkin is 31-0 with 28 knockouts and is rapidly garnering attention as one of boxing's best overall fighters. But he's fought no one nearly as good or nearly as slick as Hopkins.

Hopkins needs first to get past the power-punching Kovalev on Saturday, which is no sure thing. Kovalev is about a 2-1 favorite.

But should Hopkins prevail, it could set up one of the most intriguing bouts for the first part of 2015.

"Absolutely, we'll try to do that," De La Hoya said. "Bernard wants Golovkin and it's my job to deliver the big fights, so we'll do everything we can to make it."