By Sean McDaniel: IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute (26-0, 21 KO’s) mentioned being interested in fighting light heavyweight Bernard Hopkins (51-5-1, 32 KO’s) last Saturday night following Bute’s impressive 3rd round TKO win over Edison Miranda at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Canada. This is a fight that some boxing fans might not be interested in due to the age of the 45-year-old Hopkins.

However, there would be a lot of interest from the majority of fans to see this fight simply because Bute is considered to be the best fighter in the super middleweight division and is thought to be one of the top fighters in the light heavyweight division. Hopkins may or may not be still the number #1 guy at light heavyweight now that Chad Dawson keeps getting better and better.

But Hopkins is close enough to make him an ideal choice for Bute to fight. Some fans are of the opinion that Hopkins has lost it and doesn’t have the stamina to fight hard for three minutes of every round any more. They think this because of Hopkins’ recent 12 round decision win over Roy Jones Jr. on April 3rd. In that fight, Hopkins hit the canvas on three separate occasions, holding the back of his head in pain after getting hit with rabbit punches two separate times and then going down from a low blow.

Some people feel that Hopkins was acting in a move to either get a needed rest break or to try and get Jones disqualified. Fans also think that Hopkins was flopping around on the canvas in his 12 round split decision loss to Joe Calzaghe in April 2008. Whatever the case, Hopkins is still fighting well enough to be considered one of the top fighters in the light heavyweight division. However, Bute is a very tough fighter as he’s shown in his last thee fights, stopping all three of them early in the fight. Bute is showing better power now than he did earlier in his career, and with his hit and run style of fighting, he’s not easy to hit with shots.

Hopkins, in his last two fights since his impressive win over Kelly Pavlik in October 2008, he’s done more clinching and less punching than he normally does. Could this be age creeping in with Hopkins or just a case of him not being properly motivated in both of the fights. Neither Hopkins’ win over Enrique Ornelas or his 12 round decision win over Roy Jones Jr. were all that close.

Bute would be throwing a lot more punches with better power than what Hopkins has faced in a long time. At 45, the question would be whether Hopkins could handle the speed and fire power that Bute would be unleashing on him for 12 rounds. If Hopkins has been flopping around on the canvas to get needed rest breaks, then he’d have to flop a lot more against Bute because the Romanian fighter sets a faster pace than most fighters do. Hopkins could find himself getting worn out by the youth and work rate from Bute and unable to fight him the way he’s done in the past against his opposition.

Unlike Hopkins’s recent opponents who weren’t that good on the inside, Bute is very good at close quarters and capable of knocking out his opponents with shots at a very short range. Will Hopkins retire if he becomes yet another knockout victim for Bute. It could be. A knockout loss would be a huge blow to the career of Hopkins and it’s hard to see him wanting to continue after a loss like that.