By Chris Williams: After Roy Jones Jr. was wiped out by Danny Green in a 1st round slaughter on December 2nd, any reason to watch a bout between Jones and 45-year-old Bernard Hopkins (50-5-1, 32 KO’s) effectively went down the drain with that defeat. However, instead of moving on and taking a fight with a top light heavyweight such as Chad Dawson, Hopkins has decided to take the fight with Jones anyway rather than a more appealing option of a younger fighter.

At least Hopkins could have chosen a fighter that isn’t coming off a loss like Jones. Come on, there’s Danny Green. Why not fight him. He did just finish destroying Jones in one round. I don’t understand why Hopkins doesn’t want to fight him instead of the recently beaten Jones.

I can somewhat see why Hopkins might want to fight Jones. After all, Jones, 41, defeated Hopkins by a 12 round decision 17 years ago in 1993 while fighting with only one hand. Jones injured his right hand early in the fight and was forced to fight Hopkins using only his left. It didn’t matter.

Even using one hand, Jones was too good for Hopkins. Now, 17 years later, Jones’ skills and his ability to take punishment has badly deteriorated. It may give Hopkins a sense of satisfaction if he can beat Jones after all these years, but it’s got to be bitter sweet given how Jones has aged badly and is no longer the same fighter he once was.

If Hopkins wanted to try and prove anything, the time to do it was 17 years ago, not now. And I don’t know that a fight against Jones will give Hopkins a better payday than he would get against a more qualified fighter like Dawson.

I think that fight would do well on pay-per-view, because boxing fans have been eager to see Hopkins fight Dawson for years. But for some reason, Hopkins hasn’t wanted to fight Chad. It’s too bad, because that would be a really appealing fight right now compared to a Jones-Hopkins fight.

In an article by William Detloff at Ringtv, Hopkins says “It really is important I stay busy more than it is about fighting any particular person, especially Roy Jones Jr. It’s not like I would turn down any other fight that was meaningful to fight Roy Jones Jr. So it’s not like it’s an obsession. It’s just something I’m left with.” That’s kind of odd. Besides Dawson, Hopkins could go after Lucian Bute, Andre Ward, Andre Dirrell, Carl Froch, Tomasz Adamek, Green, Arthur Abraham or Mikkel Kessler. Anyone of these fighters would be much better options for Hopkins fight now compared to a fight against the recently destroyed Jones, you would think.