By Chris Williams: In yesterday’s ESPN Friday Night Fights, Bernard Hopkins (49-5-1, 32 KOs) said that he’d like to fight rematches with either Joe Calzaghe or Jermain Taylor, preferring to fight Calzaghe. “I prefer a rematch with Joe Calzaghe. If not, you have Jermain Taylor and that’s business I have to take care of,” Hopkins said. However, the chances of Hopkins fighting them would seem remote at this point and in the case of Calzaghe, probably next to zero. Hopkins will be turning 44 on January 15th, which means he doesn’t have whole lot of time to sit around and wait for fights against those two fighters.
It seems that if he wants to continue fighting, he’s going to have to lower his expectations somewhat and choose someone a little less popular than them. Chad Dawson, the IBF light heavyweight champion, would be an ideal opponent for Hopkins, because not only is Dawson an excellent fighter with superb boxing skills and power, but he’s also widely thought of as being the best fighter in the light heavyweight division bar none.
Still, he’s not particularly well known by the wider public, but Hopkins could do him a big favor by fighting him and giving him a chance of making a bigger name for himself. Hopkins, however, doesn’t seem to be interested in fighting Dawson, saying “I don’t want to fight anyone in their 20s, because I don’t want to take away from the future of boxing. Because after I go, you’re going to need the Chad Dawson’s to uphold the light heavyweight division. You’re going to need the young guys to take Roy Jones Jr’s place and my place and Antonio Tarver.”
It’s unclear whether Hopkins was being evasive or not in his answer, because Dawson, only 26, would have a very real chance at beating Hopkins. I think Dawson would actually beat Hopkins and possibly by a landslide. This isn’t the skinny, undersized , one-dimensional Kelly Pavlik that Hopkins would be facing.
Dawson is both taller than Hopkins and Pavlik, much faster in terms of hand speed, better foot movement and probably equal to Pavlik in power. Even better than that, Dawson is a southpaw and would be very tough for a fighter as old as Hopkins to beat. This wouldn’t be a case where Hopkins could use his super hand speed to beat down someone like Pavlik, because Dawson would have the clear advantage in that department.
“I think I got a fight or two in me and I think that people will want to see me against Joe Calzaghe, whether it’s in Wales or whether in the United States,” said Hopkins.
Again, I think this is wishful thinking on his part, because of all the opponents that Calzaghe would possibly fight, Hopkins is probably on the bottom. Calzaghe didn’t enjoy the fight which was a rather dull one, but more than that, he hated the promotional work that he had to do leading up to the fight where he and Hopkins often exchanged heated words. Though it’s possibly Calzaghe might change his mind if enough money is waived in front of his nose, it’s going to have to be quite a bit for him to accept a rematch with Hopkins.
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