By Chris Williams: While many boxing fans feelings are extremely polarized when it comes to a potential fight between 48-year-old IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (54-6-2, 32 KO’s) and Floyd Mayweather Jr. (47-0, 26 KO’s), Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer seems to be warming to the idea of that fight taking place.
It’s unclear whether he’ll be looking to make the fight next May like Hopkins is hoping will happen, but he’s intrigued about the possibility of Hopkins turning 50 a year from now and Mayweather looking for his 50th fight at the same time around then.
Schaefer said via Fightnews “I was telling Bernard one thing that is out there is the number 50. With Bernard approaching 50 and Floyd Mayweather approaching 50-0, which is historic as well. We all knock Rocky Marciano retired at 49-0, and so Floyd is approaching a 50 number and that sort of gets my promotional juices flowing.”
I don’t know if boxing fans will be anymore interested in a Mayweather-Hopkins fight a year from now just because Schaefer is sticking a “50” marketing angle on the fight. Fans will want to see the fight right now with Hopkins about to turn 49 in January, but I doubt that the fight will be anymore special a year from now with Hopkins a year older and about to turn 50. Schaefer should be looking at Hopkins in real terms right now. Hopkins is old now, and unless Schaefer matches Hopkins carefully in the next year to get him to a Mayweather fight, he’ll probably get beaten.
Hopkins says he wants some big fights, but he takes a big fight against someone like Carl Froch, Sergey Kovalev or Adonis Stevenson in the next year, he’ll probably lose to all of them. Schaefer can keep Hopkins winning before the Mayweather fight by matching him against some of the top 15 contenders in the 175 lb. division along the same quality as Hopkins’ last opponent Karo Murat. Hopkins can beat the contenders, but it’s probably asking too much for him to beat anyone really good at this stage. That’s why Schaefer needs to try and make the Hopkins-Mayweather fight for next May and forget about his thoughts on waiting until Hopkins is about to turn 50 and Mayweather is approaching 50 wins. Hopkins may not make it through another year without getting beaten again, and he can’t keep fighting Murat type of contenders without the boxing fans seeing him as milking his IBF title and avoiding the best guys in the division.
Hardcore fans may not understand why Schaefer might be interested in matching Mayweather against Hopkins because they don’t understand that Schaefer and Hopkins are looking at this from a business perspective. Casual boxing fans will love a Mayweather-Hopkins fight, even if hardcore fans hate it. It’s the casual fans that Schaefer would be aiming this fight at, and it’s a good business move to make this fight. I
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