By Dan Ambrose: Roy Jones Jr. (54-6, 40 KO’s) speaking to Greg Leon of Boxing Talk didn’t have much good to say about light heavyweight Bernard Hopkins (50-5-1, 32 KO’s), saying when asked by Leon whether he thinks that Hopkins has improved “His head is a big bigger, but that’s about it.” Jones later gave Hopkins some minor praise, saying “He’s become smarter. Instead of being an aggressive fighter, he became a smarter fighter…but he learned that from me too.” Hopkins, 45, will be facing the 41-year-old Jones next month on April 3rd at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This fight pretty much won’t have a slew of talented fighters on the undercard, despite the bout being on Payer-Per-View. However, Hopkins and Jones are counting on a substantial number of boxing fans wanting to pay to see these two guys fight anyway. Jones is far from his prime form in the early 90s.
However, if Jones’ chin can hold out without him getting blasted out by Hopkins, he may not need to be at his best. Hopkins has had problems against fighters like Jones in his career, and was recently beaten by Joe Calzaghe by a 12 round decision in 2008. Jones defeated Hopkins with only one hand in 1993, beating him by a 12 round decision after injuring his right hand early in the bout.
Hopkins had problems with Jones’ superior hand speed and movement in that fight, and was only able to have any real success when Jones would stop and trade with him. Jones doesn’t plan on being a stationary target for Hopkins to pound on when they meet next month, especially after being stopped in the 1st round in December by International Boxing Organization cruiserweight champion Danny Green in Sydney, Australia. Jones made a huge mistake in that fight by retreating to a corner and covering up. This allowed Green to land a big right hand that put Jones down. Although Jones got to his feet, he took heavy shots until the referee stepped in and stopped the fight a short time later.
Jones says to Leon, “You’ll see vintage Roy Jones movement. “ Jones goes on to point out that Hopkins hasn’t gotten better as a fighter. Like he said, Jones thinks that Hopkins has become a smarter fighter, and says that he’s picked winnable fights for him. In other words, Jones thinks that Hopkins has cherry picked opponents that he knew he could beat.
This is pretty much what all fighters do unfortunately. Although Hopkins fans will point out that he’s beaten Antonio Tarver, Winky Wright and Kelly Pavlik in the past four years to show that he’s not been a fighter that is carefully selecting opponents. However, Hopkins’ detractors will point out that Hopkins hasn’t been quick to fight light heavyweight Chad Dawson, who many boxing fans feel is the best fighter in the light heavyweight division at this time. Dawson has been considered by many to be the best in the light heavyweight division for at least a couple of years now, yet Hopkins hasn’t fought him.
If Jones’ chin can hold out in a fight with Hopkins, which is doubtful given his knockout losses to Glen Johnson, Antonio Tarver and Danny Green, then he could have enough left to pull out a minor upset over Hopkins. But for Jones to win, he can’t make the mistake of going into his shell and just covering up on the ropes like he’s been accustomed to doing in the past six years. Jones will need young legs to beat Hopkins and will have to fight smart by not just standing there in front of Bernard for prolonged stretches of time.
Jones is quick enough to get away with standing in front of Hopkins for short periods of time, but not for long periods. He’ll get knocked out again if he does that. The good thing that Jones has going for him in this fight is that he’s still much faster than Hopkins, even after all these years. Jones will be a lot faster than him, but for him to win, he’s going to have to be a lot smarter too.
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