By Scott Gilfoid: 44-year-old Bernard Hopkins (49-5-1, 32 KO’s) is reportedly interested in facing World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye next year if the bout can be made. For this to happen, Hopkins will have to beat his next opponent Enrique Ornelas, who Hopkins will be facing on December 2nd.

Ornelas, the brother of super middleweight contender Librado Andrade, is serving the purpose as a tune-up bout for Hopkins before his long awaited rematch against Roy Jones Jr. next year in March. Hopkins will have to win both of these fights to keep alive a slim hope of facing Haye while he is still in possession of the WBA heavyweight title. What’s working against Hopkins, of course, is that Haye is interested in facing one of the Klitschko brothers next year if he can get by his mandatory challenger John Ruiz.

The way that Haye looked against big Nikolay Valuev earlier this month in taking away his title in a dull 12 round decision, Haye would be lucky if he can get by the 37-year-old Ruiz. The chances of Haye escaping with his title still in his possession against one of the Klitschko brothers seem to be extremely remote. Haye doesn’t have the size, the work rate or the chin to stand and trade with the Klitschko brothers on even terms and unless he’s suddenly developed a chin, its unlikely Haye will last more than a handful of rounds against whichever Klitschko he ends up facing.

As of now, Vitali appears to have the greatest interest in facing Haye. Wladimir hasn’t said anything about wanting to fight Haye, perhaps still a little upset how Haye pulled out of his June 20th fight with him complaining of a back injury.

Hopkins, if he can get past Jones next year, would be a very tough opponent for Haye because of his good chin and excellent boxing skills. Although Hopkins would be a little smaller than Haye at 6’1″, I would give Hopkins an excellent chance of getting to Haye’s brittle chin and knocking him out. For sure, Haye wouldn’t be able to run his way to a victory against Hopkins because he’s much faster than the slow moving Valuev.

Likewise, Haye couldn’t pot shot and beat Hopkins by averaging 10 punches per night, because Hopkins will likely be throwing five times that many at Haye. And Haye also won’t be able to use his hand as an excuse again, because I think the boxing public will only buy that excuse once before they start to smell something fishy from Haye. My guess is Hopkins finds Haye’s Swiss cheese chin and takes him out by the 8th round. By then, Haye will be exhausted and will have shot his load from being forced to throw slightly more than 10 punches per round.

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Dirrell, Abraham, Taylor and Froch make predictions about Ward-Kessler bout

The talented American Andre Dirrell is picking unbeaten Andre Ward to beat WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler this Saturday night at the Oracle Arena, in Oakland, California. Dirrell said: “Ward has the ability to win. This is his biggest fight so he’ll have to stick to his game plan but I’m going with him.” This was a good safe pick for Dirrell to make, because the Danish Kessler is coming off a year layoff from boxing and didn’t look good in his first fight in over a year against Gusmyr Perdomo in September.

Ward, a former Olympic Gold Medal winner for the U.S>, has looked sensational breezing through his first 20 fights of his pro career. Ward easily defeated knockout artist Edison Miranda by a one-sided 12 round decision in May. In his last fight, Ward defeated Shelby Pudwill, a fighter with a style very similar to Kessler, in an easy 3rd round stoppage in September.

WBC super middleweight champion Carl Froch fresh off his controversial 12 round split decision win over Dirrell in October, is picking Kessler to defeat Dirrell. Froch said “Mikkel Kessler will win because of his strength and ring experience.” Froch is hoping to get a shot at Kessler’s WBA title if he still has it by the time he faces Froch next year. Froch defeated Dirrell when he was given the nod by two of the judges, both Europeans, while the third, a Mexican, gave the fight to Dirrell.

Former middleweight champion Jermain Taylor is picking Ward to win Saturday’s fight, saying “Carl Froch has been very cocky and he knows his boxing skills are nowhere close to mine. Kessler is a pretty relaxed guy. He’s not too cocky by any means. I like him a lot but I am still going for our guys.” Froch defeated Taylor by a 12th round knockout in their fight in April 2009. At the time of the stoppage, Froch was behind in the fight and needed a knockout to win.

Arthur Abraham is picking Kessler to win, although he admits to being not familiar with Ward. “Andre Ward is not to be underestimated. He is very good. He is technically very sound and can also punch hard as he has shown in previous fights. But I hope that my new stablemate, Mikkel Kessler, wins.” Abraham stopped Taylor in the 12th round of his Super Six fight on October 17th. Abraham didn’t look all that impressive apart from the knockout and had a problem letting his hands go as usual.

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In other boxing news, the problem with the judges for the Mikkel Kessler vs. Andre Ward bout has been ironed out. A South African judge Stanley Christodoulou and a Swedish judge Michael Hook will be working the Kessler-Ward fight, along with American judge Steve Morrow. Kessler had been saying that he wouldn’t put his WBA title on the line for this Saturday’s bout because all three of the judges were from California, the home state of Andre Ward. However, this has now been fixed with the addition of Hook and Christodoulou.