By Jim Dower: After doing nothing for one year after his win over Kelly Pavlik in late 2008, 45-year-old Bernard Hopkins has sprung to life recently with a win over fringe middleweight contender Enrique Ornelas in December. Hopkins also has a fight coming up on April 3rd, against Roy Jones Jr. at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Hopkins, however, is looking past the Jones fight and is hoping that he can get a bout against World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye (23-1, 21 KO’s) in the summer. In an interview with the BBC, Hopkins said “If I can get the opportunity to fight Haye by late summer I’ll be there but first I’ll destroy Jones.”
Haye, 29, has a mandatory challenge coming up on April 3rd against 38-year-old John Ruiz in Manchester, England. However, after that fight is out of the way, Haye should be freed up to fight Hopkins if he actually wants the fight. Haye has talked a great deal about fighting one of the Klitschko brothers next, and if the British heavyweight opts to take a fight against the smaller 6’1” light heavyweight Hopkins, it might look to some boxing fans that Haye is cherry picking an easier opponent. WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko has made no secret of the fact that he’d like to be the one that fights Haye next.
Klitschko, 38, said recently that he’ll retire this year after he gets a fight against Haye. However, if Haye bypasses him to fight the 45-year-old Hopkins, it could force Klitschko to change his plans by waiting around a little longer than he’d like to. Haye at some point could also be giving a rematch to former WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev, who Haye beat by a narrow 12 round majority decision in November. Haye will have to decide which bouts he feels will be the more profitable and at the same time he needs to weigh the risks involved with taking fights against Klitschko or Hopkins.
It may be safer for Haye to take the bout against the smaller Hopkins in the summer rather than risking his title against the 6’7” Vitali Klitschko. That fight will likely make more money than a fight against Hopkins, but then again, Haye probably has little chance of beating Klitschko, so it might be better to take a fight against Hopkins next.
Hopkins, for his part, talked yesterday about wanting to clean up the light heavyweight division by beating all the current title holders, and the wrapping things up with a fight against Chad Dawson. Hopkins seems to have a lot of different goals that he’d like to accomplish before he hangs up his gloves for good. The only problem is he may not have enough time to accomplish them all without taking losses.
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