Hopkins wants Bute or Froch after Murat bout

By Boxing News - 05/22/2013 - Comments

hopkins_wright2224By Allan Fox: IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (53-6-2, 32 KO’s) is targeting IBF super middleweight champion Carl Froch or former IBF super middleweight champ Lucian Bute for later this year if Hopkins can get past his mandatory challenger Karo Murat (25-1-1, 15 KO’s) next month on July 13th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Hopkins sees the Froch and Bute fight as the biggest money fights out there for him right now. He’s not interested in fighting the likes of Chad Dawson, Nathan Cleverly and Beibut Shumenov or moving up to cruiserweight to fight their champions because the money isn’t as good.

Hopkins said to RingTV “How do you think Bute and Bernard Hopkins would do in Montreal? I’m a name there. I saw the crowd shout and holler my name there…. That’s a huge money fight. Froch, if he beats Kessler, in his hometown [of Nottingham].”

That is interesting that Hopkins is willing to fight Bute in his hometown of Montreal, Canada and Froch in his hometown of Nottingham, UK. It shows that Hopkins is fearless about taking on these two fighters in their homes, but it also shows that Hopkins recognizes that the gate will be much bigger if he faces them in their home countries than if he were to fight them in the United States.

A Hopkins vs. Froch or Hopkins vs. Bute fight in the U.S would likely sell 3,000 to 5,000 tickets, possibly more if Golden Boy Promotions stacked the undercard with a lot of big names. However, the same fights would sell over 9,000 tickets if they take place in Nottingham or Montreal.

Hopkins may have to bend over backwards to get the fights with those two because Bute hasn’t seemed interested in the fight thus far, and Froch is saying that a fight against Hopkins would have to take place at a catch weight because he doesn’t want to move up in weight to 175 to face Hopkins at the full weight.

Froch needs to be Kessler this Saturday night for a potential future fight against Hopkins to take place, and it’s questionable whether Froch can win that fight. He was beaten by Kessler three years ago, and not much has changed since then. Froch is still easy to hit, and Kessler still looks pretty much like the same fighter he was when he beat Froch in 2010.



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