By Jim Dower: 45-year-old former middleweight and light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (51-5-1, 32 KO’s) is interested in moving up in weight and challenging World Boxing Association heavyweight champion David Haye (24-1, 22 KO’s) for his WBA title. Hopkins hasn’t been very active in the past couple of years since easily beating Kelly Pavlik by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision in October 2008.
However, Hopkins seems to be energized at the thought of moving up to face the younger, bigger, faster and stronger Haye at heavyweight. Hopkins’ last fight was at light heavyweight against 41-year-old Roy Jones Jr. last April. Hopkins didn’t look very good in this dull fight, which was marred by fouling and a lot of clinching.
Hopkins hit the canvas a couple of times from what appeared to be rabbit punches. Hopkins didn’t look overpowering in that fight against Jones, who had been knocked out in the 1st round in his previous fight against Danny Green in December.
It’s interesting that Hopkins wants to fight Haye at heavyweight, but it would be a fight that would be made more credible if Hopkins at least proved that he could beat a cruiserweight before moving up in weight. Hopkins would be skipping the cruiserweight division altogether and moving up in weight 25 pounds.
Haye has been weighing around 215 for his fights and that would give him a significant size advantage for Hopkins, even if Hopkins could bulk up to 200.
In an interview at East Side Boxing’s On The Ropes Boxing Radio, Hopkins says “Could you imagine? Just the press conference alone with B-Hop and David Haye, can you imagine his personally and my personality? I mean you will really have to take a vote on who won these. I mean every tour would be exciting. You won’t have a boring tour.”
There wasn’t much excitement generated before Hopkins’ last fight with Jones in April. I don’t that a fight between Hopkins and Haye would bring much excitement that Haye’s recent fight against John Ruiz. It might interest some boxing fans, but it would be a fight that largely be seen as a crude mismatch because of Hopkins’ advanced age and his small size.
He’s not only a lot lighter than Haye, but he’s also a lot slower than him. I really don’t think that fans would have a lot of interest in this fight. I could see Haye taking the fight just for the chance to milk his title for a little while longer. There would be zero risk of Hopkins stopping him and in a boxing match, Haye would win because of his speed and power.
It’s pretty easy figuring out what Hopkins’ game plan would be. He would be looking to clinch Haye at every turn to prevent him from landing his big bombs. But I think Hopkins would get beaten up even on the inside, because Haye is good at landing short uppercuts and rabbit shots in a clinch. Hopkins would have a strong chance of getting hurt whether on the outside or the inside. I can’t see this fight going more than four or five rounds.
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