By Eric Thomas: 45-year-old Bernard Hopkins (51-5-1, 32 KO’s) is interested in fighting WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (26-1, 16 KO’s), in the latest boxing news. Pascal, 27, previously mentioned Hopkins’ name as one of the fighters that he would be interested in fighting next before he takes on Chad Dawson in a rematch next year. Pascal defeated Dawson by an 11 round technical decision on August 14th, and is looking to get an opponent with a big name for his next fight. Although all of Canada is clamoring for a bout between Pascal and IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute, neither of those fighters appear at all interested in that fight right now.

As such, Pascal will be looking to take on someone else and unfortunately he doesn’t have a lot of options in the division. There really aren’t many popular fighters in the light heavyweight division besides Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr. IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud is still pretty much an unknown fighter among the casual boxing fans, and the same goes for WBA champion Beibut Shumenov and WBO title holder Jurgen Brahmer. The best super middleweights are currently tied up in the Super Six tournament and won’t be available to fight for some time now.

Pascal mentioned Joe Calzaghe as one of the opponents that he’d be interested in fighting, but that’s more a pipe dream than a realistic option. Calzaghe isn’t going to be coming back and if he did, he wouldn’t choose someone like Pascal. Hopkins may be the best option available for Pascal, but the fight might not be as popular as Pascal hopes. Hopkins hasn’t looked too good in his last two fights against Enrique Ornelas and Roy Jones Jr., and he also lost a year of his career through inactivity after beating Kelly Pavlik by a lopsided 12 round decision in October 2008. Hopkins would be a good fight, but not a huge one for Pascal. The hardest part about that fight will be trying to negotiate it.