By Allan Fox: Former two division world champion Bernard Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOs) says he’ll be returning to the ring in the near future against a prominent fighter before stepping away from the sport.
Hopkins, 50, hasn’t fought since November of last year when he was beaten by Sergey Kovalev by a 12 round unanimous decision. Following that loss, Hopkins was hoping to get a fight against former IBF/WBA super middleweight champion Carl Froch, but he failed to take the fight with him.
“Unlike my business partner Oscar De La Hoya I’ll be confirming that I’m not retired, I’m looking to make one more historical, meaningful fight before I close out my 27 year career,” Hopkins said to Fox Sports.
Just who Hopkins could be facing is unclear. He’s recently showed interest in wanting to fight for a world title at 168 against IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale, but his promoter Eddie Hearn has other guys that he’s looking at matching DeGale with for his first defense. Unless Hopkins can lure one of the other 168lb champions like Badou Jack, Arthur Abraham or Andre Ward, it’s likely he’ll have to be content with getting one of the light heavyweight contenders to face him.
A fight between Hopkins and WBC 175lb champion Adonis Stevenson is extremely unlikely. The same goes for a fight between Hopkins and WBA champ Juergen Braehmer. Hopkins’ fighting style is too difficult for him to be someone that is highly sought out by the other fighters at 175 and 168.
“Stay tuned, it will be against a well-known name. I’m looking to get a stamp of approval on my legacy,” Hopkins said.
A rematch between Hopkins and Jean Pascal would be an interesting fight, but I’m not sure that Pascal would want another fight with Hopkins after fighting him twice in the past. Pascal lost to Hopkins by a 12 round decision in 2011. Hopkins vs. Chad Dawson would be an interesting fight. The two of them fought twice with Dawson beating Hopkins in their rematch in 2012.
Right now, Dawson looks like a shot fighter, as he hasn’t fought since losing a 10 round split decision to Tommy Karpency in October of 2014. Dawson hasn’t fought at all in 2015, and it’s unclear whether he’s going to see action this year. Hopkins-Dawson 3 would be an interesting fight if Hopkins can’t get a bigger fight.
Hopkins would do well to face unbeaten light heavyweight contender Artur Beterbiev. It wouldn’t be a big name for Hopkins, but it would still be a very interesting fight to see how Beterbiev can do against an old warrior like Hopkins.
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