By Jim Dower: Golden Boy Promotions president Oscar De La Hoya says that 49-year-old Bernard Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOs) isn’t ready to retire from boxing just yet after his one-sided 12 round unanimous decision loss to WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev (26-0-1, 23 KOs) last Saturday night at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Hopkins was knocked down in the 1st round, and ended up losing the fight by the scores of 120-106, 120-107 and 120-107.
De La Hoya thinks that Hopkins would have won last Saturday night had he been in the ring with any other top light heavyweight or even against some of the top super middleweights like Carl Froch or Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
“Bernard was in there with a lion, with a beast,” De La Hoya said via RingTV.com. “Kovalev is the best light heavyweight fighter out there. He will crush anybody. He really did look amazing, and Hopkins admits that. So what I am telling Hopkins is, ‘Look, if you don’t fight Kovalev that night and you fight anybody else, [lineal champion] Adonis Stevenson, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., [super middleweight titleholder] Carl Froch, you beat them easily.”
As much as I like Hopkins as a fighter, I gave to disagree with what De La Hoya is saying. I don’t think he would have beaten guys like Adonis Stevenson, Froch or Chavez Jr. Further, I think Hopkins would have been soundly beaten had he fought Jean Pascal or Chad Dawson last Saturday. Hopkins wouldn’t have gotten the job done with him throwing just 15 punches per round against those guys.
“Bernard still has fights. He still has some big fights,” De La Hoya said. He’s not ready to retire. He was in the gym on Monday. I called him and he said, ‘I’m not sore anymore.’ He says he feels great. This guy is a machine.”
Hopkins can continue to work out and fight, but unless Golden Boy picks out an easy mark for him like WBA champion Jurgen Braehmer, I can’t see Hopkins winning at the highest level. If he’s match against Artur Beterbiev, Pascal, Stevenson or Dawson, Hopkins would have lost. I don’t see anywhere Hopkins can go at this point other than in the direction of Braehmer.
Comments are closed.