By Eric Baldwin: Bernard Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOs) will be putting a cap on his career this Saturday night on December 17 in facing light heavyweight contender Joe Smith Jr. (22-1, 18 KOs) in a 12 round bout at the Forum in Inglewood, California. HBO Championship Boxing will be televising the card.
The co-feature fight between WBO cruiserweight champion Oleksandr Usyk (10-0, 9 KOs) and Thabiso Mchunu (17-2, 11 KOs) might ultimately provide more entertainment for the boxing public, however. That fight looks to be a competitive one on paper, as long as Usyk mixes it up more than he did in his recent 12 round unanimous decision win over Krzystof Glowacki last September.
Usyk, a 2012 Olympic gold medalist from Ukraine, boxed the entire 12 round fight with Glowacki and did little in the way of mixing it up. Usyk still won the fight, but it wasn’t one of the more entertaining fights he’s had since turning pro three years ago in 2013. Mchunu, #9 WBC, #12 WBO, #14 IBF, is a crafty boxer that will likely be trying to outsmart the much taller 6’3” Usyk.
Mchunu is facing the wrong type of fighter for him to try and box his way to a win. The 5’11” Mchunu’s fighting style is more suited to facing sluggers, because he’s good at making his opponents miss with their big power shots. But against the boxer/puncher Usyk, Mchunu is going to wind up getting picked apart all night long by his jabs.
Usyk is going to tenderize Mchunu with his jabs before looking to take him out with a left hand. Both guys are southpaws, so there won’t be any advantage for Mchunu in that area. Mchunu gives a lot of his opponent’s problems with his southpaw stance, but he won’t be able to use that to confuse Usyk. Last year, Mchunu was knocked out in the 11th round by the hard hitting Ilunga Makabu. Mchunu was ahead on the scorecards at the time of the stoppage.
Hopkins, 51, says he’s going to be retiring after the fight against Smith Jr. It’s a good thing for Hopkins, because he’s gone as far as he’s going to go in boxing. At his age, he’s not going to win another world title, especially now that Andre Ward is holding down three of the four titles at 175. WBC champion is Adonis Stevenson, and I don’t think Hopkins would do well at all against him. Hopkins might be able to give WBA ‘regular’ champion Nathan Cleverly some problems if he could get a fight against him, but even that fight would be a bad match-up for Hop, because Cleverly is a high volume puncher who would likely outwork the soon to be 52-year-old Hopkins.
Hopkins has a good chance of beating Smith Jr. Hopkins has got a flawed opponent with a ranking that is arguably inflated at 175. Smith is still a very, very green fighter with next to no experience under his belt. I don’t think Smith Jr. is half as good as some of the fighters that Hopkins has beaten in the recent past like Beibut Shumenov and Kelly Pavlik. However, those fights took place when Hopkins was still an active fighter and a little bit younger than he is right now. Smith will need to try and cut off the ring on Hopkins and pressure him for him to have a chance of winning this fight. Hopkins will use movement and his typical in and out attacking style to try and win rounds.
You have to remember that Hopkins hasn’t fought in two years since his one-sided 12 round unanimous decision loss to Sergey Kovalev in November 2014. There’s no shame in Hopkins losing to a guy as talented as Kovalev. However, the two years that Hopkins has been out of the ring is bad news potentially for him. The Hopkins that lost to Kovalev likely would have boxed circles around Smith Jr., but I’m not sure that the ring rusty and older Hopkins were going do see on Saturday night will be sharp or young enough to do the job against the 27-year-old.
Smith Jr. is ranked #2 WBC, #5 WBA, and #12 WBO at light heavyweight. Smith’s high ranking is from his recent upset win over Andrzej Fonfara last June. Smith Jr. surprised Fonfara by knocking him out in the 1st round. I don’t know if Smith would have won that fight if Fonfara had fought with some discipline by boxing in the early rounds rather than just going out and trying to slug from the first round. Fonfara showed Smith Jr. no respect at all in terms of being cautious at the start of the fight, and he paid a heavy price in getting knocked down twice and stopped. I think Fonfara would beat Smith Jr. in a rematch if he fought smart in the early going, because I still believe that he’s a better fighter.
The sanctioning bodies probably shouldn’t have Smith anywhere near a top five ranking based off his poor resume, and his inexperience. Smith Jr. seems like a decent slugger, but he still looks very crude inside the ring in terms of his boxing ability. Out of Smith’s entire resume in his 7-year pro career, the only guys that stand out are Will Rosinsky and Andrzej Fonfara.
The rest of the guys that Smith Jr. has fought have been largely obscure 2nd and 3rd tier opposition. Hopkins obviously sees the inexperience that Smith Jr. has and realizes that this is a guy that he has a good chance of beating. I don’t think for a second that Hopkins would take on a live dog for his final fight.
If Hopkins wanted to take on someone that would really show the boxing world something, he would have taken on unbeaten two-time Russian Olympian Artur Beterbiev or Oleksandr Gvozdyk. Those two stand out among the top contenders at 175 right now. Hopkins didn’t select either of those guys. Bernard sees something in Smith’s fighting style that tells him that he thinks he’s someone he can beat.
I don’t think Smith Jr. should be ranked as high as he is. He’s a decent fighter, but the World Boxing Council has it wrong to have Smith Jr. ranked above Beterbiev or Gvozdyk in my view. I think both of those guys would beat Smith Jr. with ease in a one-sided fight. Smith Jr. has already been beaten by Eddie Caminero (6-3) by a 4th round knockout in 2010. He never avenged that loss.
Also on Saturday’s Hopkins vs. Smith Jr. card is unbeaten middleweight fringe contender Jason Quigley (11-0, 9 KOs) facing Jorge Melendez (30-7-1, 28 KOs) in a scheduled 10 round fight. The 27-year-old Melendez has lost five out of his last nine fights since 2013. That’s not good.
The handlers for the 25-year-old Quigley aren’t going to put him in with anyone good at this point, because he’s still got a lot to learn. Quigley would likely get smashed if he fought middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin right now. He needs more time to develop, and for Golovkin to age before a fight between them can take place. Quigley isn’t that kind of a talent unfortunately. He did recently beat James De La Rosa by a one-sided 10 round unanimous decision.
Unbeaten featherweight contender Joseph Diaz (22-0, 13 KOs) will be defending his NABF title against Horacio Garcia (30-1-1, 22 KOs). Diaz, a 2012 U.S Olympian, recently beat Andrew Cancio, Victor Proa and Jayson Velez in 2016.