By William Mackay: Bernard Hopkins (49-5-1, 32 KO’s) must be really sad and disappointed right about now after discovering the news that Roy Jones Jr., who was supposed to be his next opponent after tonight’s bout with middleweight Enrique Ornelas, was stopped in the 1st round by International Boxing Organization cruiserweight champion Danny Green on Wednesday evening in Sydney, Australia. It was a very poor fight for Jones, who looked nothing like his old self. He did look old, but not in a good way. Green jumped all over the 40-year-old Jones, knocking him down with a right hand and landing a blizzard of shots to the head of Jones until referee Howard John Foster stepped in and stopped the carnage at 2:02 of the 1st.
Jones looked relieved at having the fight stopped and made no complaints. Maybe there’s a lesson in here somewhere for fighters like Jones. If he wanted to take a big money fight against Hopkins, he should have thought a little more wisely when he picked the hard hitting Green as an opponent just before. If Jones had been in the prime of his career, he no doubt would have easily dealt with Green and beaten him without any problems.
However, at 40, Jones isn’t the same fighter he was a decade ago and can’t afford to take fights against hard hitters like Green. As such, Jones needs to think seriously about retiring from boxing. Certainly, Jones can continue fighting washed up former stars and fringe stars of the sport, but that’s probably about as far as he can go.
Last year, Jones was spanked badly in a one-sided 12 round decision loss to Joe Calzaghe. Jones followed that loss with wins over Omar Sheika and Jeff Lacy, thus possibly giving Jones the illusion that he was back and had found his old form. But when he took on Green, who still has a lot of life left in his despite his 36-years of age, Jones was exposed once again and sent packing.
The bad thing about this loss is that the fight against Hopkins, a bout which many boxing fans had been looking forward to with great interest, is now pretty much down the drain. Few people will want to watch Hopkins take on Jones now, not after seeing Jones destroyed so badly by Green. Hopkins was beaten by Jones in 1993 by a 12 round decision, and the rematch 17 years later in 2010, was supposed to give Hopkins a chance to avenge the defeat.
Now, however, that fight is up in the air. Nothing has been said from the two parties about whether they’ll still go forward with the fight, but you can imagine it probably won’t. The interest just won’t be there by boxing fans, and Hopkins likely won’t want to fight Jones after seeing him stopped so easily by Green. Speaking of Green, this might be a fight that Hopkins should consider going for.
If he can go up against Green and beat him handily, which I believe he would, then it would be another feather in the cap for Hopkins. One problem with that, though is that Green isn’t all that well known in the United States. Hopkins would be better off facing someone like Chad Dawson instead. Dawson is the best light heavyweight in the division and a fight between him and Hopkins would be very popular with boxing fans in the U.S.
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