By Scott Gilfoid: in the latest boxing news, former middleweight and light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (48-5-1, 32 KOs) is looking for one more big fight before, perhaps, getting out of boxing and wrapping up his excellent career. Richard Schaefer, an executive for Golden Boy Promotions, recently said that the ideal opponent for Hopkins, now 43, would be either Felix Trinidad or Roy Jones Jr., both of whom Hopkins has previously fought in the past. Of the two, Hopkins would no doubt be more interested in the 39 year-old Jones, who previously beat him by a narrow decision 15 years ago in May 1993.

Jones, though well beyond his best years in boxing, still retains much of his popularity with many fans, if not his once great ability. As for a fight with Trinidad, it’s a much less appealing option given the fact that he’s lost three out of his last five fights, and has been mostly inactive in the past six years. Additionally, Hopkins already stopped Trinidad in a 12th round TKO in September 2001, a fight that was never even remotely competitive. Other than a few die hard Trinidad fans, disparate perhaps to see him fight no matter what the circumstance, it would probably be a tough sell to get most of the public to buy into the fight.

Hopkins, despite being a champion for 10 years as a middleweight, has never had the crowd-pleasing style of fighting like other less accomplished middleweights, such as Julian Jackson and Gerald McClellan. As one would expect, Hopkins has become even less interesting to watch in recent years, with many of his fights turning to a slow ‘punch and clinch” grind it out drama. That was never more apparent than in his last fight, a 12th round split decision loss, against Joe Calzaghe in April.

Hopkins slowed the fight down to a crawl by constantly clinching, taking time out for low blows that didn’t seem all that low, and choosing not to exchange with Calzaghe at the center of the ring. I suppose you can’t blame Hopkins, because a lot of his skills are now beginning to fade as he ages, but it still doesn’t erase the fact that his style of fighting isn’t pleasing to the eye.

To be sure, a fight between Hopkins and Jones would clearly be the best option, for it would be a huge fight, possibly even a mega-bout and would give both of these aging fighters a big payday. But, I’m guessing that Jones wouldn’t be as interested in a fight of this kind simply because he hasn’t retained his skills as he’s aged like Hopkins. In his prime, Jones was the better fighter than Hopkins, and there was no question that Jones was the better man in their 1993 fight.

That said, I doubt that he’d be interested in taking on Hopkins once again, because it would be a fight that Jones would likely not be able to win at this stage of his career. Jones has better options going for him, specifically a potential bout with Calzaghe, which would bring in much more money than a fight with Hopkins. So where does that leave Hopkins? Well, if he might be able to lure Trinidad back into the ring, if they can waive enough money under his nose. It would probably have to be a lot, though, because Trinidad hates losing, and wouldn’t want to take a risky fight like this unless he knew he was going to be well paid.