By Dan Ambrose: In an interview with Showtime tonight, former three division world champion Adrien Broner says he’s picking IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (54-6-2, 32 KO’s) to defeat WBA light heavyweight champion Beibut Shumenov (14-1, 9 KO’s) in their unification bout tonight at the DC Armory, in Washington, District of Columbia, USA.
“B-Hop for sure,” said Broner. “I saw him at the gym the other day and he looks great.”
This could be a lot tougher fight for the 49-year-old Hopkins than many boxing fans suspect it will be, as it’s been two years since Hopkins fought a really good light heavyweight in his loss to Chad Dawson in 2012.
In his two fights since the defeat to Dawson, Hopkins as beaten Tavoris Cloud and Karo Murat. Those aren’t great fighters. Hopkins may have a real fight on his hands here with Shumenov. Hopefully, Hopkins hasn’t looked past the 30-year-old Shumenov because we could see an upset. Shumenov has heavy hands and he’s capable of knocking anyone in the division if he lands his power shots.
The negative about Shumenov is his poor resume. He’s faced literally no one that you can call a good fighter during his pro career. He had two life and death fights against Gabriel Capillo. Those fights shouldn’t have been as hard as they were for Shumenov if he was a really good fighter, but he really struggled badly.
The reason why Shumenov has a chance tonight against Hopkins is due to the age of Hopkins and the fact that he didn’t look all that great in his last fight against Murat. If Shumenov can land as much as Murat did last October in his loss to Hopkins, we could see a big upset tonight.
Hopkins says he won’t retire if he loses the fight tonight. He plans on continuing his career no matter what. It will definitely get in the way of his planned fight against WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson though.
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