By Dan Ambrose: Former two-division world champion Bernard Hopkins (51-5-1, 32 KO’s) is looking at the big money he can make if he can beat World Boxing Council (WBC) light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (26-1, 16 KO’s) on December 18th. Hopkins, 45, would be in an excellent position to fight the winner of the Super Six tournament fight next year and make huge money in that fight or against fighters like IBF super middleweight champion Jean Pascal or former two-time light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson.

In an article by Chris Mannix at Sportsillustrated.cnn.com, Hopkins says “There is potentially $20 million on the table. There are more bodies, more names. I’m back in business [if he beats Pascal] again. The money that is out there, with me being one of the oldest fighters in the world, there are major fights on the table.”

This is true. If Hopkins can beat Pascal, he’ll make good money if he can take on the winner of the Super Six tourney. However, Hopkins may find it incredibly difficult to beat a young and fast fighter like Pascal looking the way that Hopkins has looked in his recent fights against Roy Jones Jr., Enrique Ornelas and Joe Calzaghe. The Hopkins that fought those fights would likely be too slow and too inactive to beat a guy like Pascal. The common ingredient in each of those fights was that Hopkins did a lot of punching and holding.

I’m not sure if that will work against Pascal, because he’s really good at landing before he gets grabbed. Hopkins will likely try to maul and wrestle Pascal on the inside for long periods of time. That’s pretty much Hopkins’ only chance of winning. He’s not fast enough or active enough to beat Pascal in a fight that takes place at long distance. He’ll get eaten alive by the quicker Pascal from the outside.

Hopkins might end up looking really old. However, he could find luck in wrestling Pascal inside if Pascal and the referee let’s Hopkins do this. I think Pascal is too smart and too strong to be mauled on the inside for long stretches of each round. In that case, Hopkins will have to be good enough to beat Pascal by fighting at a distance and I don’t think he is now.

Hopkins says “I’ll set traps for that. Bear traps. You know the bear is coming, you set the trap for the bear, jab, left hook, right hand.” Hopkins sounds a little deluded, if you ask me. I don’t see him doing anything against Pascal other than maybe holding a lot, and falling down from shots near the beltline. I see this as being an even uglier fight than Hopkins’ bouts with Ornelas and Jones. Those were really terrible fights to watch. This is probably going to be far worse with a lot of clinching.

I think Hopkins would lose badly to Andre Ward and Chad Dawson. I think both of those guys are too good for him. I also think Lucian Bute would dominate Hopkins. He’d get a big payday, but that would be the end of the line. However, I don’t see Hopkins beating Pascal, not the Hopkins that we’ve seen recently at least.