By Allan Fox: IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (56-6-2, 32 KO’s) says he’ll likely move down in weight for his next fight rather than face the other 175 lb. champions in unification matches. Hopkins badly wants to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. at middleweight, and Hopkins is also interested in facing Carl Froch, the IBF/WBA super middleweight champion. Hopkins thinks Golden Boy can get him a fight against Mayweather.
Hopkins said last night “Right now we’ll look to get the best super fights, whether it’s up in weight or down in weight. It’ll most likely be down in weight. I can make 160, if the negotiations [with Mayweather] are reasonable. If anybody can make a deal in the business of boxing, Richard Schaefer can.”
Schaefer is the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions and recently put together big fights between Mayweather Jr. and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Lucas Matthysse and Danny Garcia. That gives Hopkins the confidence that Schaefer can put together would pretty much be a golden parachute fight for Hopkins between him and Mayweather. There’s no chance that Hopkins would win the fight because even last night, he looked slow at 175. He would have to take off 15 pounds to get down to 160 to fight Mayweather and that would have him weight drained, weak and definitely slower than he normally is. Mayweather would then be able to pick Hopkins apart, even if he did bulk up with water weight after the weigh-in and come into the fight over 180 lbs. Hopkins would definitely have a huge weight advantage over Mayweather, but it would be the type of weight that would help him because he doesn’t throw enough punches and he’s not a huge puncher. Mayweather would win this fight easily.
If it was the best possible fight or Mayweather to take, I can see him taking on Hopkins, but I’m not sure if it would be worth it. Hopkins is definitely better known than guys like Devon Alexander and Danny Garcia. Both of those guys could end up facing Mayweather in the near future, but I don’t know if it’ll be worth it for Mayweather to mess with his own body by bulking up to 160 just to face Hopkins. We’ve seen too many fighters that are never the same once they bulk up in weight and then try to come back down in weight.
It’s not a big enough fight for Mayweather to be messing with his body like that just to fight 49-year-old Hopkins in a fight where Mayweather won’t get any credit. It’s a good fight for Hopkins because it’ll give him one last big payday before retirement, but I don’t think it’s an important enough fight for Mayweather to make it worth his while to have to bulk up to 160 and face a guy that will likely have a 20 pound weight advantage over him next May. Mayweather needs to focus on fighting guys from the welterweight division instead of light heavyweights looking for a payday.
You can forget about Hopkins fighting a unification bout against WBO champion Sergey Kovalev or WBC champ Adonis Stevenson because both of them fight on HBO, and Hopkins is saying that he’s loyal to Showtime. Hopkins is probably breathing a sigh of relief over that now because those guys are a lot better than Hopkins’ opponent Karo Murat from last night. Hopkins struggled at times in beating Murat by a 12 round decision, and there’s no way that Murat would last more than 4 rounds against either Stevenson or Kovalev.