By Dan Ambrose: Bernard Hopkins (52-6-2, 32 KO’s) fought his heart out last Saturday night against Chad Dawson (31-1, 17 KO’s) but it wasn’t good enough for him to get the win with the three judges, as the 47-year-old Hopkins came up the loser by a 12 round majority decision by the scores 117-111, 117-111 and 114-114.

There was some thought that Hopkins would elect to retire rather than hang on and maybe end up being a gatekeeper or trial horse for the younger contenders at 175. However, Hopkins says he’s going to continue fighting and wants to go after the other champions, presumably at light heavyweight.

Hopkins said “I will continue my career and challenge any champion in my division.”

The options are as follows for Hopkins at 175: 1. WBO champ Nathan Cleverly 2. IBF champ Tavoris Cloud 3. WBA champ Beibut Shumenov.

It’s pretty easy to see immediately what would be the best option for Hopkins. It isn’t Shumenov or Cloud, because neither of them are huge draws and Hopkins would be lucky to bring in a crowd of 3000 fans no matter where the fight took place in the United States.

The only real option is the 25-year-old Cleverly, because he’s capable of bringing in huge crowds in Wales and if Hopkins can get 1/2 of the gate in addition to a good purse split, he’ll make a real killing come this summer. Cleverly and his promoter already are interested in a Hopkins bout, and I doubt that his loss to Dawson took away any of their interest.

It obviously would make more sense for Cleverly to face Dawson instead of Hopkins, but given that Hopkins is the much more popular fighter, it’s an easy decision to choose him rather than Dawson. Besides that, Cleverly matches up better against Hopkins than he does against Dawson. Hopkins is possibly beatable, but Dawson would no doubt do a number on Cleverly.