Arthur Abraham vs. Bernard Hopkins possible for 2016

By Boxing News - 09/23/2015 - Comments

Image: Arthur Abraham vs. Bernard Hopkins possible for 2016By Dan Ambrose: WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (43-4, 29 KOs) could be facing soon to be 51-year-old Bernard Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOs) in a fight that would be taking place in 2016, according to Dan Rafael.

Hopkins hasn’t fought since losing a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision to Russian light heavyweight Sergey Kovalev last November. Hopkins has had opportunities to fight since then, but he’s looking for a big fight rather than the smaller ones at this point in his career.

It’s unclear how much interest an Abraham vs. Hopkins fight would generate. It’s possible that the American fans wouldn’t be too excited about the fight because Abraham isn’t well-known with the casual U.S boxing fans. He’s only known by the hardcore fans. But it’s a fight that would do well in Germany, where the 35-year-old Abraham always fights.

“Absolutely, we are talking daily with Golden Boy,” Abraham’s promoter Kalle Sauerland said to espn.com.

They would be looking to have the Abraham-Hopkins fight take place in February or March next year, in either the United States or Germany.

Hopkins would have to move down to 168 for the fight to happen with Abraham, but he’d likely make that move if the fight offered a big enough pay day for him. Hopkins would no doubt also be interested in facing Gennady “GGG” Golovkin if he were willing to move up to 168 to meet him at that weight.

I don’t think Golovkin would make that move though because it’s not a fight that would be big enough in the U.S for him to want to make the move up in weight. Golovkin has shown interest in the past in moving up to super middleweight to fight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Carl Froch, but neither of those fighters ever took place.

Hopkins is expected to retire after one more fight. He’ll be turning 51 in January, and he obviously can’t keep fighting forever. Unfortunately for him the light heavyweight division has become really solid with Kovalev and Adonis Stevenson holding all the titles in that weight class.

Hopkins wouldn’t match up well with Stevenson, and there’s no point in him fighting Kovalev again. Hopkins will have been out of the ring for an entire year by next November, and it’s quite possible that Hopkins won’t see action until he’s been out of the ring for a year and a half if not more. That’s not a good thing for Hopkins in terms of him having a chance at winning his next fight.

Hopkins would have a good chance of beating Abraham if he can smother Abraham and wrestle him the way Andre Ward did in the Super Six tournament. Hopkins knows how to fight like Ward, and he could make things miserable for Abraham if he opted to fight him using his smothering style of fighting.

Abraham would be helpless against that type of tactic from Hopkins. It might not be interesting for the boxing fans to watch that kind of a fight, but Hopkins would almost surely get the victory to end his career with a win.

Roy Jones Jr. to fight Enzo Maccarinelli on November 28th in Russia

46-year-old Roy Jones Jr. says he’ll be fighting former WBO cruiserweight champion Enzo Maccarinelli on November 28th in Russia. Jones recently became a citizen of Russia after meeting with the president of Russia Vladimir Putin to get his permission to make that happen. Jones wants to bring business to the country, and he feels that the best way to make that happen is if he’s a citizen and can travel freely without the hassles of having to apply for a visa to travel there.

Maccarinelli will be fighting next month on October 10th against Mehdi Amar. Maccarinelli will have to defeat Amar in order to get the fight against Jones. There are no guarantees that Maccarinelli can beat Amar, even though he’s little more than a fringe contender at best.

Jones wants to win a world title at cruiserweight, and he could be getting a title shot in the near future for one of those belts. However, there are no easy marks for Jones to beat in the cruiserweight division right now, and he could wind up getting knocked out like he was five years ago by Denis Lebedev.

Showtime in talks to televise Kell Brook vs. Diego Chaves fight

Showtime Sports is working on trying to make a deal to televise the October 24th fight between IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook and Diego Chaves. The fight will be taking place in Sheffield, England. Showtime recently announced that they would be televising the Brook-Chaves fight, but that was a premature announcement. They still need to finish the negotiations before they’ll be ready to televise it.



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