What Are the Options for 44-year-old Hopkins?
May 14th, 2009
By Matt Stein: Former middleweight and light heavyweight champion of the World Bernard Hopkins (49-5-1, 32 KOs) is looking for a big money for his next bout, but so far he’s had little luck in landing the right opponent that’s will to take the money that he’s offering. In a lot of ways, Hopkins’ career is now mimicking the final days of Joe Calzaghe’s career.
International Boxing Federation light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson may be more talented than Hopkins and would likely beat him if they were to fight, but Dawson doesn’t have the fan base as of yet at this point in his still young career.
Hopkins faced a similar situation for much of his career, but now that he’s been fighting for 21 years as a pro, Hopkins has picked up a respectable amount of fans, although nothing in comparisons to other stars like Floyd Mayweather Jr., Oscar De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton.
Just when Hopkins started to pick up some attention in his career after defeating Oscar De La Hoya in a 9th round KO in 2004, Hopkins was beaten twice by Jermain Taylor in 2005. Hopkins came back from the defeats to beat Antonio Tarver and Winky Wright in 2006 and 2007, but then Hopkins was beaten once again this time by Joe Calzaghe in April 2008.
After that fight, many boxing fans felt that Hopkins was finished as a fighter, but he then came back and defeated middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik by a 12 round decision in October 2008. The win was a huge one for Hopkins specifically because of his age and the fact that he was considered finished by so many fans.
However, since the win Hopkins career has gone into a state of paralysis as he searched for the right opponent to fight. Like a lot of fighters that have previously made big money, it doesn’t get easy when there are few big named opponents available to fight.
Although Hopkins has a ton of options for good fights available to him, most of them are against younger fighters that the casual boxing fan has little knowledge of. One of those opponents that Hopkins is interested in, International Boxing Federation cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek, turned down an offer from Hopkins for a bout due to the money not being good enough.
Hopkins would like to win the IBF title to add to his collection. However, unless Hopkins is interested in giving Adamek a bigger cut of the purse, it’s likely that this bout won’t happen. Dawson, 26, has a previous victory over Adamek and would seem like the logical opponent for Hopkins, but for the lack of a huge fan base, Dawson isn’t nearly as appealing an option for Hopkins.
Besides that, Dawson would be a very tough opponent for a fighter Hopkins’ age and it would take a super fight for Hopkins to beat Dawson. Hopkins could take on a talented super middleweight like Lucian Bute or Mikkel Kessler if he wanted to, but neither of those guys seem to interest Hopkins, probably for the same reasons why Dawson isn’t an appealing opponent.
Kessler and Bute aren’t well known in the U.S., and would bring in few fans. Ideally, if Hopkins had a big enough fan base on his own, he could do well against any opponent that he faces, but as we saw in his Calzaghe fight, that’s simply not the case.
This is why Hopkins needs someone really special in order to get a huge payday. If Shane Mosley was a little bit bigger or if De La Hoya had anything left, those two would be the perfect fights for Hopkins, but that’s not the case. Hopkins might either have to retire with Pavlik being his last fight, or else consider offering more money to Adamek.
Even if he does, though, the Adamek fight won’t be huge by any stretch of the imagination because Adamek is in the class of Dawson as far as being known by casual boxing fans. If Hopkins wanted to help his legacy, he’d take the Dawson fight, because Chad is considered by many boxing experts to be the number #1 light heavyweight division. However, I seriously doubt that Hopkins will ever fight Dawson.
Tags: 18 Responses to “What Are the Options for 44-year-old Hopkins?”
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If jean pascal wins a light heavyweight title then maybe hopkins could challenge for that then maybe a unification fight with dawson?
As for roy jones, if hopkins was really interested in that fight, dont you think he would have taken it by now? Jones has slowed down dramaticly and he poses no real threat to hopkins, he’s fitter, smarter and stronger than jones and he would be the favourite but hopkins likes to be the underdog.
I dont know how he’s so fit at his age and i dont see age being an issue for hopkins, even against someone with as high a workrate as calzaghe.
So Calzaghe should have fought Dawson but he’s not a big enough name for Hopkins?????
This site does amuse me!
With the exception of Roy Jones i dont see any other options. Hopkins should think about retirement. He wants big money but at his age the opportunities are limited due to his health being an issue on top of his money demands.
My mistake i got mixed up cos it was in France.
Would still be a good fight and Woods would travel willinglly
For all his classy combinations and fast hands, Dawson doesn’t match up to Calzaghe in terms of the sheer volume of punches and pressure he puts on an opponent. Nowhere near close in my opinion. For that reason, and Hopkins’ superior ringcraft, I’d fancy him to decision Dawson. Calzaghe clearly won against Hopkins, albeit on a close scorecard. Hopkins will win a couple more rounds against Dawson than he did against Calzaghe, and he won’t be forced into the underhand tactics he resorted to against Calzaghe (in order to slow the fight down). The only way I could see Dawson winning was if he somehow built up enough of a lead early on, or took Hopkins out early on (even less likely).
Froch is another opponent who Hopkins could beat, because although Froch is heavy-handed, he isn’t fast. Hopkins would stand a good chance of counterpunching his way to a win. He’d add the WBC Super-Middleweight title to his resume – a nice addition to go with his middleweight and light-heavyweight titles.
The Adamek fight broke down to due money issues, as is alluded to by Mr Stein. It would also bring Hopkins a title, but is unlikely to happen now.
A rematch with a faded Roy Jones Jr. doesn’t seem like a meaningful fight, but it might well be a money-making one. It would make more money than a fight with Glen Johnson, that’s for sure.
Oscar De La Hoya and Shane Mosley are too small (again, as Mr Stein points out). People seem to be clammering for Hopkins to fight Paul Williams, but don’t we have a similar problem here? How far down in weight are you people expecting Hopkins to go?! Williams has won a couple of bouts at light-middleweight and a single bout a middleweight IIRC. His team say he’ll fight anyone at those weights, or welterweight. Is Hopkins really going to come down to middleweight? I seriously doubt. Nor should he have to either.
Finally, Clinton Woods isn’t a suitable option. There wouldn’t be enough interest/money in the fight stateside, nor would it be for a title. Incidentally, Woods has never won the European crown. Since losing his IBF belt, he’s taken and won a single fight – an IBF Light-Heavyweight eliminator against Elvir Muriqi.
Froch is definatley a tougher fight for B-Hop than Dawson but im 99% sure he wont drop to super middle, mainly because he made Joe C, Winky and Pavlik all come up to light heavy (mainly because a p4p calzaghe and a p4p winky would beat him, still unsure about pavlik).
How about a fight with Clinton Woods? Since losing his IBF title he has since won the europeon crown, both fighters are getting on but are both in the world top ten, this could be a final push for both towards a title fight… any takers?
b hop is in dream land jc schooled him and roy jones and the yanks hate it pmsl.
HOPKINS MAN UP AND CHALLENGE PAUL WILLIAMS
yes – hopkins is out for the money now, so anyone who wants to fight him needs to put money on the table. shaw moaning about avoiding chad is doing just that – moaning. he knows exactly how much money it costs to fight hopkins and they can’t come up with offer like that, because no one is interested in chad dawson, and not so so many people are interested in b-hop.
if it ever happens i’d definitely go for hopkins, to school dawson, who is nothing special in my eyes, and was exposed before by glenn johson, barely making it through the fight and getting dubious decision over road warrior. so it doesnt take hopkins to beat him – i’d bet froch or bute would do him imo. no big deal about this guy to be honest. he aint no paul willimas
BERNARD HOPKINS AND ROY JONES JR ARE GREATER FIGHTERS THEN JOE CALZAGHE WILL EVA BE!!
Hopkins is a boring fighter, I think he may have at least 4 or 5 decent fight in his career, and I would not even hit the rewind button. He should try for Roy Jones, Or James Tomny and call it a day. If he is man enough, call out Paul Williams, he would get the money he wants and a proper ass whipping.
Has Hopkins ever left America?
Hopkins should come to england and fight frock,i also believe he would comfortably beat froch on points,the hopkins would have a world title to use as leverage in future bouts,but not too many.(44yrs old!)
I reckon he should fight Dawson… but obviously he doesn’t want to.
Or Carl Froch.
Or… like a couple of people said above, Hopkins vs Roy Jones Jr II, and both fighters retire after.
I wana see him face Dawson. Everybodys split on Dawson some bleet on about how great he is and how hed beat Joe Calzaghe and the rest believe him to be nothin more than average and as soon as he faces a god opponant he will be shown for what he is.
Personally i think hes got some decent talent but is one of those fighters who dont really show it and excell until pushed and Hopkins would certainly do that. Either way we would find out what he really is.
But if not theres still plenty of boxing out there for Hopkins its just a case of who wants Hopkins.
Why not Hopkins Vs Jones Jr???
I reckon Hopkins under Nazim Richardson could beat Dawson, would beat Adamek and would absolutely obliterate Froch a la Pavlik.
hopkins vs jones jr and both retire
I personally would love to see Hopkins V Dawson, but as you rightly say there is a big risk from both corners with this fight. If Hopkins loses it a bad end to a great career and if Dawson loses his (Dawson’s) reputation will suffer the same way as Pavliks has.
Dawson doesn’t want to fight Johnson again for the same reason, too risky, not enough money and a hard night.
Hopkins v Dawson or Johnson V Dawson are the fights that the fans want to see but are too risky for unbeaten Chad Dawson and a retiring Hopkins.