By Jim Dower: 45-year-old Bernard Hopkins (51-5-1, 32 KO’s) refuses to hang up his gloves and feels he has no reason to retire from boxing at this point in his career. Hopkins beat 41-year-old Roy Jones Jr. last week in one of the more boring fights of 2010, a bout in which Hopkins and Jones took turns fouling each other, wrestling and doing little punching. Hopkins hit the deck on several occasions, nursing the back of his head and his front side after getting hit with rabbit punches and one low blow from Jones. Some fans felt that Hopkins was faking. They felt that Hopkins was acting to get either a rest break or points deducted from Jones.

It’s hard to imagine why Hopkins would need Jones to be penalized. The fight was as one-sided as you can imagine because Jones wasn’t throwing any punches. Hopkins was clearly going to win anyway, and it seems silly to think that he would be trying to get the referee to take points from Jones. But the fight was boring, there’s no getting away from that. And this is Hopkins second dull fight in a row. His bout with Enrique Ornelas in December was almost as boring as the Jones fight.

Hopkins spent a lot of time on the inside, hitting and clinching and it wasn’t really thrilling stuff to watch. After the Jones fight, a lot of boxing fans called for both Jones and Hopkins to retire. Even Richard Schaefer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, mentioned Hopkins retiring, saying in an article at ESPN, “Could be something, which as a friend, I might advise him [Hopkins] to consider. I think it’s time for his friends and family to have a serious talk with him.”

Hopkins isn’t happy with people advising him to retire, saying “I have no reason to retire.” In an article by Michael Marley at Examiner.com, Hopkins says “These mother***ers want me out. They are all trying to stop me from working. They all want me out of the way; it’s their agenda against me. I will fight the system like I always have. I will fight the system and I love it…I am the George Foreman of this era, because I still have my skills.”

Hopkins isn’t happy that he hasn’t been able to land any big fights since beating Kelly Pavlik by a 12 round decision in October 2008. The win was a great one for Hopkins, but he’s done little since then other beating Jones and Ornelas. Few fans wanted to see the Jones fight after he was stopped by Danny Green in December. However, Hopkins went ahead with the fight anyway despite few fans wanting the fight to take anymore. Hopkins has himself to blame for part of his inactivity over the past couple of years.

Chad Dawson, arguably the best fighter in the light heavyweight division, has been calling out Hopkins continuously during the past two years, but Hopkins has shown interest in fighting him for some reason. That’s the number #1 fighter in the minds of many boxing fans, and if Hopkins isn’t willing to fight him, there are really not a lot of other options that fans care about in the light heavyweight division.

Hopkins really didn’t do himself any favors by moving out of the middleweight division in 2006. Hopkins dominated the middleweight division for a 10 year period from 1995 to 2005. But, by moving up to the light heavyweight division, a division which is largely ignored by boxing fans, Hopkins had fewer people to fight. At least if Hopkins had stayed at middleweight, he could have been free to fight a rematch with Pavlik, and go after other top middleweights like Arthur Abraham, Felix Sturm and Paul Williams. I think those are all pretty good options for Hopkins, better than the opponents that Hopkins ended up taking against Antonio Tarver and Winky Wright.

It’s hard to know what Hopkins can do if he continues fighting. If he doesn’t want to fight Dawson, then who else is there besides him? Dawson is probably going to beat Jean Pascal, the WBC light heavyweight champion next, so Hopkins can’t fight Pascal. If Hopkins fights Beibut Shumenov, the WBA light heavyweight champion, it’s doubtful that anyone will really care, because Shumenov isn’t well known in the U.S. and he looked horrible in his two fights with Gabriel Campillo. Hopkins would do well if he chose to fight IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud, but I think he would lose that fight and I doubt he will take it. Hopkins wants to fight WBA heavyweight champion David Haye, but that seems like a pipe dream on Hopkins’ part, because Haye hasn’t shown any interest in wanting to fight Hopkins, especially after seeing his dreadful fight against Jones.

Hopkins says “What he [Schaefer] should have done is to take the podium and say I want to discuss things with Bernard Hopkins’ team, which means me because I am my own team…I am upset because it is my decision. You can say that I am pissed because I am pissed. I lost a whole year of my career after beating Pavlik.”

Again, Hopkins isn’t happy that he wasn’t matched against a suitable opponent. At light heavyweight, there really aren’t all that many options available aside from Glen Johnson, Dawson, Cloud and Pascal. That’s the problem. It’s a weight class where the fighter is stuck between the cruiserweight and the super middleweight division. The super middleweights have no recently become the hot division, but before the Super Six tournament, it wasn’t as popular.

The cruiserweight division is largely ignored by fans. As such, Hopkins has fewer options available unless he’s willing to face the top guys like Dawson, Johnson, Pascal and Cloud in his own division. Hopkins can always fight some super middleweights, but he’ll have to wait a year before the Super Six tournament is over before he can face the really popular fighters. A fight between Hopkins and IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute would be a good fight, but I think it would be a bad match-up for Hopkins because Bute is hard to hit, very fast and has sneaky power.