By Sean McDaniel: Roy Jones Jr. sounded as confident as usual at the press conference before Saturday night’s bout against 45-year-old Bernard Hopkins at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Jones, now 41, is coming off a technical knockout loss against Danny Green last December. However, even with the 1st round destruction against Green, Jones foresees himself beating Hopkins this Saturday night. Jones says “I know after this one, if Bernard Hopkins can hurt me, cause Bernard Hopkins is not that big of a puncher. If he can hurt me after this one, maybe it’s time to hang it up. I won’t give you my secrets, but I guarantee I’ll stop him, you watch.”
It sounds like Jones is whistling past the graveyard, because the chances of Jones taking out Hopkins seem pretty slim at this point in Jones’ career. If middleweight Kelly Pavlik couldn’t take out Hopkins, then it’s very doubtful that Jones, a weaker puncher, will have much luck in denting Hopkins’ cast iron chin. There’s a chance, naturally, because Jones does punch with a lot of speed and has good power to go along with it.
However, Hopkins will have to have slipped some since his last fight in December for him to be stopped by Jones. If anyone is going to be knocked out in this fight, it’s probably going to be Jones. He’s the one that has been stopped three times in the past six years, and is coming off a stoppage loss in December. Jones has been pretty selective in his match making for the past few years, and Hopkins presents a big stop up for Jones to take. Jones may have handled Hopkins well in their first fight 17 years ago in beating him by a 12 round decision, but that was ages ago and neither fighter is the same as they were back then.
Hopkins says “I don’t think anyone can charge or accuse me of ducking anybody is boxing. You can say anything you want to say about Bernard Hopkins, but I don’t think my worst enemy can say that Bernard Hopkins was afraid to fight anybody…I will prove the reason why Roy Jones didn’t want to fight me was because he understood the execution that’s coming April 3rd.”
Hopkins says he’s never ducked anyone, but there’s a lot of boxing fans who feel that Hopkins is and has been ducking Chad Dawson for quite some time. Hopkins says he doesn’t want to fight Dawson because he would be taking away from the future of the sport if he ends up beating Dawson. Not sure how many people buy that excuse because Dawson is a superb fighter and it looks like he might be too good for Hopkins to come out on top against if they were to fight.
The Jones vs. Hopkins undercard will have Sergio Mora Calvin Green, Daniel Judah vs. Ismayl Silakh, and Jason Litzau vs. Rocky Juarez. It’s a decent fight card, but it might not bring in huge numbers on PPV due to the age of Hopkins and Jones.
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