By Scott Gilfoid: After IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (53-6-2, 32 KO’s) gets through taking care of his mandatory challenger Karo Murat )25-1-1, 15 KO’s) on July 27th, Hopkins wants to take on either IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch or former IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute. It sounds like Hopkins wants to face them back to back.
Hopkins said to RingTV “I’m biased, so I’m going to tell you who I want to win. I want Froch and Bute to win. To fight either one of them, I would go to their countries, and, you know, they love me in Canada.”
Frank Warren, the promoter for WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly, is interested in having Cleverly fight on the same card as Hopkins fight with Murat. Cleverly would be facing WBA light heavyweight champion Beibut Shumenov and then the winner of those two fights could meet up for a unification match later.
Hopkins may have to settle for that because I really, really doubt Froch or Bute would agree to fight Hopkins. I can’t see it happening, and I doubt that even WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler would want to fight Hopkins.
The problem is those guys are particular about the type of opponents they face. Froch just faced Yusaf Mack, while Kessler just defeated Brian Magee. Hopkins just doesn’t fit in the picture with guys like that, and I don’t think Andre Ward does either. He already beat both Froch and Kessler.
I really don’t think it’s worth it for Hopkins to fight Cleverly, even if Cleverly defeats Shumenov. There’s no upside to Hopkins fighting Cleverly because you can’t sell a fight like that in the United States.
Hopkins would have to fight Cleverly in the UK for it to make good money and I really don’t see Hopkins doing that.
Hopkins and Murat will be squaring off at the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York, USA.
This is one of Hopkins’ worst fights in years in terms of fighting a little known opponent. The last time that Hopkins fought an obscure opponent like this was when he beat Enrique Ornelas in 2009. Since then, Hopkins has been in with Jean Pascal, Chad Dawson, Tavoris Cloud, and Roy Jones Jr.
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