Bernard Hopkins won’t retire

By Jason Kim: Bernard Hopkins says he plans on continuing his boxing career despite his poor showing in his 2nd round TKO loss to Chad Dawson last Saturday night. Although the fight ended prematurely when the 46-year-old Hopkins jumped on Dawson’s back and injured himself after Dawson shucked him off, Hopkins still looked old in the two rounds of the fight.

Hopkins told the Associated Press at ESPN “I am going to fight again because I’m still the champion…My career will not end, and has no reason to end based on Saturday night.”

It may not be over but Hopkins doesn’t have a lot of options for big fights for the time being. He’ll have to wait a year, possibly longer before he can get some of the big names to fight him in the super middleweight division, and it might not be in Hopkins’ interest to fight any of the Super Six fighters because they’re young and Hopkins can be outworked.

Hopkins really needs to try and fight Dawson again so that he can make up for his poor showing against Dawson. Boxing fans would respect Hopkins if he took the rematch and was able to beat Dawson. However, by moving on and facing other guys, Hopkins won’t have done himself any favors.

The ending may have been a blessing for Hopkins because it saved him from a likely embarrassing beat down on pay per view. And better than that, Hopkins may end up getting his title back by the WBC when they make a decision about whether to overturn the result this week after Hopkins’ promotional company Golden Boy Promotions appealed the ruling. The injury may have helped Hopkins get past the best fighter in the light heavyweight division. You can look at it as a stroke of luck for Hopkins. However, if this same injury type happens in subsequent fights where Hopkins hits the decks around two or three rounds from a foul, and ends up having those fights ruled as no contests, I can see this not being bought by the boxing public. Hopkins will likely get away with it this time, since there is a medical doctor saying it was a legitimate injury, but if this becomes a chronic issue for Hopkins when facing good opponents it’s going to make him look bad. A lot of boxing fans already think that Hopkins flopped in his fights against Joe Calzaghe and Roy Jones Jr.

If Hopkins gets the title back by a no contest ruling, it will be almost as if Hopkins won the fight, because he’ll get his title back and will have gotten a nice payday for less than two full rounds of action.

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