By Eric Baldwin: Bernard Hopkins’s fight against light heavyweight contender Joe Smith Jr. (21-1, 18 KOs) is now officially set for December 17 on HBO World Championship Boxing at the Forum in Inglewood, California. Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOs) says his goal is to knockout the 27-year-old Smith Jr., who is 24 years younger than the 51-year-old.
That’s got to be one of the biggest age differences in recent times between two fighters in fighting at the upper levels of the sport. The good news for Hopkins is that Smith Jr. has been knocked out in the past six years ago by little known Eddie Caminero (7-9, 7 KOs) by a 4th round knockout in 2010.
Smith Jr. has won 16 consecutive fights since that loss. Smith had problems beating Lamont Williams (5-2-1) in winning a six round split decision in 2013. There are definitely some holes in Smith’s game that Hopkins can exploit if he focuses on his superior boxing skills.
Hopkins said this about his big fight against Smith Jr:
“While ‘The Alien’ may be retired, the ‘Executioner’ has one fight left, and Joe Smith Jr., is going to find out the hard way how well prepared I am for my final fight. A lot of people will focus on my age, the history of my run in the sport, the titles, etc…but I’m focused on one thing – knocking Joe Smith out.”
Hopkins hasn’t knocked out an opponent in 12 years since he stopped Oscar De La Hoya with a body shot in 2004. Hopkins is not a big puncher. It might be a mistake if he tries to get a KO against Smith Jr., because he’ll leave himself open to getting hit by Smith’s big shots.
Smith doesn’t need a lot of room for him to generate a lot of punching power. I rate Smith as a better puncher than Kovalev. Smith doesn’t have Kovalev’s boxing ability or his amateur background. Smith is more of a raw power type of fighter.
It’s impossible not to focus on Hopkins’ advanced age. At 51, he’s got to be slower than he was two years ago when he fought Kovalev. In looking at that performance, Hopkins’ hand speed was gone, and his work rate was totally nonexistent. This wasn’t the same Hopkins that beat Beibut Shumenov in 2014. Hopkins looked like he’d lost some speed, and he was able feeble looking. It was a one-sided fight with Kovalev doing whatever he wanted to against Hopkins. Smith is going to have a big advantage in the power department in this fight.
Smith Jr. is a pretty basic fighter. In his biggest win of his career, he stopped Andrzej Fonfara in the 1st round last June. Before that knockout, Smith Jr. was getting backed up and nailed by Fonfara. It looked like Fonfara was going to have an easy fight, because Smith didn’t look world class. However, Smith threw a right hand that Fonfara wasn’t ready for, and dropped him. Fonfara got back up, but he was too hurt to defend himself, and he was finished off quickly.
Hopkins has the much better boxing skills compared to Smith Jr., and it wouldn’t be at all surprising if he beats him. A win for Hopkins would prove little other than the sanctioning bodies not realizing that Smith isn’t as good as his win over Fonfara would suggest. You can argue that Smith only beat Fonfara because of a lucky punch. If Fonfara were to fight Smith a second time, he would likely beat him as long as he was disciplined
This is supposed to be the “final one” for Hopkins, but I don’t think too many fans actually believe that. If Hopkins beats Smith, he’ll be in position for a world title shot. With the money that Hopkins can make in fighting for a world title against one of the champions at 175, it might be hard for him to turn down the fight.
“I’m very excited about fighting on HBO,” said Joe Smith Jr. “I know now all my hard work and dedication has paid off. I am looking forward to retiring a boxing legend.”
Smith is a blue collar type of fighter with good power, but slow hands, and limited defensive skills. Hopkins will bring that out if he’s got enough left in the tank to let his hands go. However, Hopkins is going to need to be busy in this fight, because he’s not going to win by trying not to get hit for 12 rounds. He’s going to have to throw a lot of shots. He’s not going to beat Smith by throwing pot shots like he did in his fights against Shumenov and Kovalev. Smith is a different type of fighter. He’s the type that wades in and tries to KO his opponents with big power shots If Hopkins can’t match his work rate, then Smith will win.