(Photo credit: Tom Casino/Showtime) By Dan Ambrose: 48-year-old IBF light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (54-6-2, 32 KO’s) recently said that he was interested in unifying the 175 lb. titles, but fans assumed that he was talking about against the best champions in the weight division in WBC champ Adonis Stevenson and WBO champ Sergey Kovalev.
That’s why it was kind of sad and hilarious to see Hopkins going up to WBA light heavyweight champion Beibut Shumenov (14-1, 9 KO’s) tonight after his win over little known fringe contender Tamas Kovacs (23-1, 14 KO’s) and saying that that it would be an honor for him to beat him next.
That move made Hopkins look kind of weak in my eyes, because that’s not fight that resonates with boxing fans. Indeed, Hopkins vs. Shumenov is more like a lateral move from Hopkins last fight against Karo Murat. I kind of defeats the whole point in Hopkins fighting a unification bout if he’s not going to fight the actual best fighters in Stevenson and Kovalev.
I know Shumenov captured the WBA title three years ago in winning a controversial 12 round split decision victory over Gabriel Campillo, but this guy has taken an incredibly easy path as the WBA champion for the three solid years he’s been the belt holder.
In three years these are the guys that Shumenov has fought:
Tomas Kovac
Enrique Ornelas
Danny Santiago
William Joppy
Vyacheslav Uzelkov
Why would Hopkins want to fight Shumenov if these are the types of opponents that Shumenov has fought? Shumenov should have fought much better opposition than this in the past three years you would think.
If Hopkins does end up facing Shumenov, I think he’ll be disappointed in the fan interest in this fight because Shumenov doesn’t have a huge fan base in the U.S, and it won’t make Hopkins look great in beating him. Fans will wonder why Hopkins isn’t facing Kovalev or Stevenson, and many of the same fans will assume that Hopkins is ducking them. Hoppkins might as well fight another unknown contender like his last opponent because I see this fight generating about as much interest. The fact is Stevenson and Kovalev are the guys now in the light heavyweight division, and if Hopkins wants to fight Shumenov, I think no one will care at all. It’ll be a unification fight in name only because the guys that fans really recognize as the true champs at 175 are Kovalev and Stevenson, not Hopkins and Shumenov.
Comments are closed.