By Jim Dower: With about two weeks to go before the April 3rd bout between aging stars Bernard Hopkins (50-5-1, 32 KO’s and Roy Jones Jr. (54-6, 40 KO’s), there is surprisingly very little buzz about this fight among boxing internet sites. It’s almost as if the fight isn’t taking place at all, because very little is being said about the fight. As popular as these two fighters were in the past, it’s downright shocking to see how little attention the fight is getting in the media. The cost of the fight is as high as watching one of the PPV bouts for stars like Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.

The Jones-Hopkins bout will cost pay-per-view viewers $49.95 to see it, which is a big number for a fight that doesn’t involve champions. For that kind of money, it usually matches a champion against a top contender. It might not matter that neither of these fighters had a title in their possession, because with the name value that both fighters have among the casual boxing fans, they could draw in old timers of the sport to see them even without Jones-Hopkins having titles. But it could be a fight that the younger boxing fans might not show interest in because neither of these fighters are boxing all that often anymore.

It’s been 17 years since the last time Jones and Hopkins fought, and that fight was not exactly a thrilling fight to watch. Jones hurt his right hand early in the bout, and had to fight with mostly his left from the 2nd round on. Hopkins spent most of the fight charging Jones like a little bull, firing shots and mostly coming up empty. Jones showed brilliant hand speed and moved well in the fight to keep out of the way of Hopkins. At close range, Hopkins was able to get the better of Jones and make the fight close. However, Jones was able to dominate at will when he was motive during the fight. He seemed bored some of the time and seemed to be coasting.

It’ll be interesting to see what kind of PPV numbers the second fight between them brings in. It probably won’t huge numbers given the lack of attention the fight is getting thus far in the media. But who knows? There could be a huge surge of interest by the boxing public the last week of the fight and it could bring in big PPV numbers. I wouldn’t bet on it though.

Neither Jones or Hopkins get talked about a lot nowadays because they’re not fighting the kinds of opponents that would bring interest in them. Hopkins has fought only once in the past two years, beating little known middleweight contender Enrique Ornelas by a dull 12 round decision in December. Jones, for his part, was knocked out in his last fight by Danny Green on December 2nd. Some boxing fans would like nothing better for Jones to retire, and feel that he’s going to get beat by Hopkins on April 3rd.