Hopkins-Ornelas: Why Didn’t Bernard face a better Opponent for His Tune-Up?

By Chris Williams: Bernard Hopkins (49-5-1, 32 KO’s) will be fighting Enrique Ornelas (29-5, 19 KO’s) in a tune-up bout on December 2nd at Liacouras Center, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This is a warm-up bout for the 44-year-old Hopkins so that he can get prepared for a bout next year against Roy Jones Jr. That fight will be a huge money maker for Hopkins and Jones. However, what gripes me is why of all fighters for Hopkins to choose from, he chose Ornelas. What is up with that? Frankly, I think Ornelas, 29, is a lame choice for a fighter like Hopkins. I don’t mind a fighter like Hopkins fighting a tune-up bout, because goodness knows he needs one.

Hopkins hasn’t fought since last year in October when he defeated Kelly Pavlik in an embarrassingly easy 12 round decision. I don’t know what Hopkins was expecting to happen after that fight, but it’s clear now that there wasn’t a massive amount of huge money fights that were available for Hopkins to fight. He kicked around names like Carl Froch, Chad Dawson and Tomasz Adamek, but for some reason Hopkins failed to move ahead and get the fights signed.

I don’t imagine that the money would have been all that huge against any of those guys anyway, but I certainly wouldn’t have minded seeing Hopkins fight at least one of them. Now after all that time, Hopkins settles on Ornelas. That is really disappointing and probably the wrong opponent for Hopkins to be fighting if he wants to get boxing fans excited about a rematch with Jones next year.

If Hopkins wants to get people interested in seeing him fight, he needs to at least fight a live body. Ornelas is a decent fighter, but come on, he was beaten last year by Marco Antonio Rubio. Yes, this is the same Rubio that Pavlik handled with ease, stopping in the 9th round in his last fight.

Ornelas was handled by Rubio and although it was close, Rubio was the clear winner. I don’t want to see Hopkins fight this guy. Hopkins is 44-years-old, so he should be trying to go after the best fighters he can get. If Ornelas is the best that Hopkins can get in the next months, so be it. However, I bet there are a lot of super middleweights and light heavyweight contenders that would just love to fight Hopkins.

At least if Hopkins would be fighting one of them, he’d be getting a fighter that is close to his weight class. Ornelas is a middleweight, and will no doubt have to come up in weight to fight Hopkins. It’s bad enough that Ornelas was beaten last year by a fighter like Rubio, but when you factor in that he’s a middleweight and will have to come up two weight classes to fight Hopkins, that leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

That reminds me of Floyd Mayweather Jr. picking out Juan Manuel Marquez to fight recently. Marquez is a lightweight and fights two divisions below Mayweather. Their September 19th bout was as ones-sided as many boxing fans thought it would be. I don’t know if the outcome would have been any different had Marquez been a welterweight and not a pumped up lightweight, but it sure wouldn’t have hurt.

Why didn’t Hopkins at least select from the light heavyweight or super middleweight division. I could see fighters like Beibut Shumenov, Sakio Bika or Allan Green jumping at the chance to fight Hopkins. Now those would be some opponents that would get the attention of boxing fans and ensure that Hopkins makes a good impression. Sure, they’re live fighters, close or at Hopkins weight and might beat him. But at least boxing fans would see a great fight instead of a great mismatch between a smaller guy and a larger one.

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