Photo Credit: Tom Casino / SHOWTIME: By Dan Ambrose: 45-year-old Bernard Hopkins (51-5-1, 32 KO’s) may not have said that he’s going to officially retire if he gets beaten by WBC light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal (26-1, 14 KO’s) if he loses to him on December 18th, but Hopkins did say this: “I understand that this fight is a win or go home for me. There’s really no tomorrow for me, unless I take this fight and take it aggressively – my career ends. People will be calling for my head. Pascal is the guy to beat right now and my motivation to accept his challenge is to show he’s just borrowing that title.” Hopkins will be fighting Pascal at the Pepsi Coliseum, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.

What his means is that Hopkins is going to have to work hard if he wants to get a decision, because he’s not going to impress the judges if he clinches or flops around the canvas if he gets hit low or behind the head. He’s going to have to go out there and beat Pascal, because he can’t do it with Pascal losing points for fouls. I don’t believe for a second that Hopkins will retire if he loses to Pascal. I can’t see that happening. Hopkins will likely continue to fight one or two times a year against this fighter or that one. Hopkins has done next to zero since beating Kelly Pavlik in 2008.

He took some time off after that win and then came back for a fight against little known Enrique Ornelas. After beating him, Hopkins defeated 41-year-old Roy Jones Jr. in an ugly fight last April. The bout, which was a pay per view fight, didn’t bring in big numbers and it was hard to watch. In looking at how average Hopkins has looked in those two fights, it’s next to impossible to see him beating Pascal. Hopkins looks too slow and isn’t throwing enough punches to beat a younger fighter like Pascal.

I would say that even the Hopkins that beat Pavlik would lose to Pascal. I think this is a bad fight for Hopkins, but I don’t think he has a lot of options. I don’t think he can beat WBA light heavyweight champion Beibut Shumenov and and I see IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud beating him too. Hopkins might be able to beat WBO champion Jurgen Brahmer, but he probably wouldn’t be interested in that fight because Brahmer is totally unknown in the U.S. I see Hopkins getting beaten WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward and IBF champion Lucian Bute.