By Allan Fox: 49-year-old Bernard Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOs) is coming off of a disappointing loss to WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (26-0-1, 23 KOs) last November in a fight that was one-sided from start to finish.
It was supposed to have been a fight that was going to lead to other big fights for Hopkins, who envisioned himself unifying all the titles in the 175 pound division.
Hopkins only would have needed to beat WBC champion Adonis Stevenson in order to have the last remaining belt not already in his possession. But instead of winning the Kovalev fight, Hopkins suffered a loss and now he’s in a situation where he won’t get a lot of status even if he were to beat a guy like Stevenson. At this point it’s doubtful that Hopkins could beat Stevenson if they were to fight, and it’s not likely that the Canadian based fighter will even give Hopkins a chance for a fight.
Hopkins will be turning 50 on January 15th and it might be a good idea for him to retire unless he can lure someone like IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch to move up in weight to face him.
I wouldn’t expect Froch to agree to a fight against Hopkins, even though it’s a fight that Froch would be able to win. There’s just no upside for him in taking the fight. With Hopkins having been beaten in his last fight and with him about to turn 50, it might not be easy for him to get the big names to want to fight him now.
One fight that Hopkins could take to win a world title would be for him to try and get WBA World light heavyweight champion Jurgen Braehmer to fight him. Braehmer has been taking it easy in facing weak opposition without big names since he picked up his WBA title. If can get a guy like Hopkins to face him, it would give Braehmer a big payday and the potential of adding Hopkins’ scalp to his resume.
It’s doubtful that Braehmer’s German fans would care too much that Hopkins isn’t the same fighter that he once was. They’d celebrate Braehmer in the same way as they would if Hopkins was in his 20s. But for Hopkins it would be a good fight, because it would give him a shot against the guy who is considered by many boxing fans to be the weak link among the current light heavyweight champions.
If Hopkins can pick up a belt from Braehmer, he can then take the title and look to face Adonis Stevenson in a unification match that would give him a good payday.
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