Bernard Hopkins ordered to fight Dudchenko vs. Mohammedi

By Boxing News - 04/29/2014 - Comments

hopkins444By Allan Fox: The International Boxing Federation has ordered 49-year-old Bernard Hopkins (55-6-2, 32 KO’s) to defend his IBF light heavyweight title against the winner of the June 21st fight between #4 IBF Nadjib Mohammedi (34-3, 20 KO’s) and #3 IBF Anatoliy Dudchenko (19-2, 13 KO’s). Hopkins had been hoping to face WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson in a unification match next, and then look to get a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr after that.

With the order by the IBF, Hopkins has a choice to make about whether he wants to take on the winner of the Dudchenko vs. Mohammedi fight in order to keep his IBF title, or if he feels it’s wiser to vacate and face Stevenson anyway. Hopkins would still have his newly won WBA title in his possession when he faces Stevenson, and so it’s not as if he would be going into that fight as a challenger.

Boxing fans likely won’t care that Hopkins won’t have the IBF title, because he wouldn’t have the WBO title either. That title is in the possession of Sergey Kovalev, and Hopkins has no plans of ever fighting him unless Kovalev comes over to Showtime in the future before Hopkins retires. That’s not going to happen anytime soon, and Hopkins isn’t young enough to wait around.

In the big scheme of things, it doesn’t matter if Hopkins vacates the IBF title. Fans aren’t going to make a big deal about him if he faces the winner of the Dudchenko-Mohammedi fight, because that’s a title defense for Hopkins that is very similar to his recent defense against Karo Murat. If Hopkins wants to get an easy title defense, then fighting one of them is the way to go. But Hopkins seems to be more interested in a much bigger unification fight against Stevenson than is in continuing to defend his titles against little known opposition.

If Hopkins beats Stevenson, he can always go back and recapture his IBF title by facing the Dudchenko-Mohammedi winner, if he feels he really needs the title in order to feel validated as a fighter. But Hopkins would be wasting his time because it wouldn’t be a big enough fight to do much for hie legacy. Hopkins would be better off trying to get the Kovalev fight or trying to lure one of the super middleweights like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to move up in weight to face him.



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