By Jim Dower: Yahoo Sports writer Kevin Iole thinks that Roy Jones Jr. may not have earned anything for his uninspiring 12 round decision loss against Bernard Hopkins last weekend at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Iole says “Given that the contract called for the first $3.5 million in profit to go to Hopkins and Golden Boy, it’s almost certain Jones fought for nothing.” This would be the case if the Hopkins-Jones fight does especially poorly when the Pay-Per-View numbers are finely calculated for the bout.

If the PPV buys are anything like the attendance figures, Iole could be right about Jones. Only 6,792 fans showed up for the fight. Compared to the 50,000 that showed up to watch the terrible mismatch between Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey, which was a mismatch going into the fight, the Jones-Hopkins attendance numbers are dreadful. If this turns out to be the last fight of Jones’ career, it would be sad to know that he didn’t get a good payday.

The Hopkins fight was perhaps a bad idea in the first place for Jones given that he was stopped in the 1st round in his previous bout against Danny Green last December. Jones might have been better off rebuilding against a lesser opponent and then taken on Hopkins later on, if at all.

The actual fight was hard to watch. Jones couldn’t let his hands go for most of the fight and mostly covered up. There were a number of fouls by both fighters, especially in the rabbit punch variety. Hopkins hit the canvas twice because of the rabbit shots. Some people thought Hopkins was acting, because he also went down from a low blow that didn’t seem like it was thrown with much power from Jones.

As for as the action in the fight goes, Hopkins did most of the punching, but didn’t look good because he spent too much time clinching Jones instead of throwing punches. I had Hopkins winning all 12 rounds of the fight because of his better work rate. Jones just didn’t let his hands go and looked to be in the survival mode from the very start of the fight. Jones might have been a little wary of throwing punches for fear of getting knocked down or hurt like he was in his last fight against Green.

Hopkins, however, never really attacked Jones like the heavy-handed Green did in his fight with Roy, so Jones was never in any real danger except for the pain from an occasional foul. Hopkins looked tired in the last part of the fight and was less effective. After the fight, Hopkins collapsed in his dressing room and needed to be taken to a nearby hospital for tests.