Hopkins wants stadium fight against Mayweather

By Boxing News - 04/20/2014 - Comments

floyd74By Chris Williams: Last Saturday night 49-year-old Bernard Hopkins (55-6-2, 32 KO’s) defeated WBA light heavyweight champion Beibut Shumenov (14-2, 9 KO’s) to win another 175lb title to go along with his IBF light heavyweight title he already has. Hopkins now his mind set on face WBC 175lb champion Adonis Stevenson later this year followed by a mega fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. Hopkins wants the Mayweather match-up to be staged in a stadium somewhere, and he feels it would be a huge fight with the fans. Hopkins even has a slogan for the fight, calling it “50-50.”

You have to wonder if Hopkins would be expecting a 50-50 purse split for the fight as well. If so, he would be dreaming worse than he already is in thinking he’ll get the fight in the first place.

“If I do a fight [against Mayweather], it would be one of the biggest fights in the world,” Hopkins said. “We will do it in a stadium somewhere. After I become the undisputed light heavyweight champion, if there was one big fight out there, I know what I would call it – 50-50. He [Mayweather] wants to pass [Rocky] Marciano. He wants to get to the 50 and I am 50. That would be huge. I would love to do that, but let me get past Stevenson first.”

Hopkins has already said that he’d move down in weight from 175 to 160lbs to make the fight happen. Hopkins would likely be weakening himself in moving down that far, but it wouldn’t matter. Just Hopkins getting the fight – and the huge payday he’d be getting – would be more than enough to take the sting out him losing to Mayweather.

Let’s look at this in a real way; First of all, Hopkins will need to beat WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson first for the Mayweather fight to happen. I don’t see Hopkins beating Stevenson in this lifetime. It’s nice that Hopkins beat Shumenov, but we’re not talking about a great light heavyweight here. Shumenov is a guy who went life and death twice with Gabriel Campillo, and I had Shumenov losing both fights to him. Since the Campillo fight four years ago, Shumenov faced very poor opposition for four long years as the WBA champion. So in other words, Hopkins beat a champion who couldn’t even beat Campillo conclusively.

Hopkins will not beat Stevenson, and he’s going to lose every exchange. At this point in his career, Hopkins still has some speed, but he can’t throw combinations and he’s not a big puncher. You don’t beat Stevenson unless you have big power and can throw a lot of shots. Stevenson will essentially out-work Hopkins and make him look like an old man the way Chad Dawson did in 2012. Again, it was nice that Hopkins beat Shumenov, but we’re talking about quality here. We’re talking about a guy who couldn’t even beat Campillo without controversy.

Mayweather has shown zero interest in fighting the 49-year-old Hopkins, and I don’t expect that to change when Hopkins turns 50 in January. If there’s going to be someone that will prevent Mayweather from breaking Rocky Marciano’s record of 49-0, it’s not going to be Hopkins.

If a Mayweather-Hopkins fight did take place, what would keep Hopkins from rehydrating from 160, after making weight, to the 180s? Mayweather would likely come into the fight around 150, and he’d be fighting a guy 30lbs heavier than him. It would be too much like a circus fight due to the advanced age of Hopkins and his huge height, reach and weight advantage over Mayweather.



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