By Bill Phanco: 47-year-old Bernard Hopkins (52-6-2, 32 KO’s) faces IBF light heavyweight champion Tavoris Cloud (24-0, 19 KO’s) on March 9th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Hopkins wants to win another world title, and he’ll be 48 by the time this fight takes place, making him one of the oldest world champions.
Bernard Hopkins
Hopkins doesn’t think Pacquiao will ever be the same after his KO loss to Marquez
By Rob Smith: Bernard Hopkins came out tonight on the Jim Rome show and gave his thoughts on whether Manny Pacquiao will be the same fighter after being knocked out viciously in the 6th round last Saturday night by Juan Manuel Marquez. Hopkins doesn’t see Pacquiao being the same fighter after that knockout. Pacquiao was unconscious for close to two minutes, face down on the canvas from Marquez’s right hand.
Bernard Hopkins to fight on March 9th in Brooklyn, Cleverly, Shumenov and Cloud possible opponents
By Bill Phanco: Former two division world champion Bernard Hopkins (52-6-2, 32 KO’s) will be fighting on March 9th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The possible opponent will be picked from one of these fighters: Nathan Cleverly, Beibut Shumenov and Tavoris Cloud.
It’s safe to say that Cleverly won’t be the one getting the fight because he has a mandatory title defense coming up against his mandatory challenger Robin Krasniqi in February, and he’s got to take that fight if he doesn’t want to risk getting stripped by the World Boxing Organization for failure to defend against his mandatory.
Hopkins will be turning 48 in January, and that’s pretty old for a fighter still looking to compete at the world class level. Hopkins looked like he’d lost something from his last two fights with Chad Dawson. He was beaten by Dawson last April by a 12 round majority decision, and before that Hopkins had fought to a 2nd round no contest with him in October last year.
Hopkins to fight on March 9th, Cleverly a possibility
By Rob Smith: 47-year-old Bernard Hopkins (52-6-2, 32 KO’s) is scheduled to retire to the ring on March 9th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York and his opponent is rumored to be WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (25-0, 12 KO’s).
Cleverly has to settle for Uzelkov after Froch, Bellew, Shumenov and Hopkins fights failed to materialize
By Marcus Richardson: WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly (24-0, 11 KO’s) is having to settle for a fight against #9 WBO Vyacheslav Uzelkov (27-2, 16 KO’s) on October 27th instead of much bigger fights against Carl Froch, Bernard Hopkins, Tony Bellew and Beibut Shumenov. Cleverly’s promoter Frank Warren attempted to line up a fight between Cleverly and each of those fighters but they either showed no interest in facing him or they backed out.
Warren said to thesun.co.uk “A huge purse was put to Froch to move up a weight division — which he turned down — and Bellew rejected the offer of a rematch. It’s proved frustrating. We had Hopkins lined up and then he pulled out, while Shumenov didn’t want to come over.”
Cleverly and the 33-year-old Uzelkov will be meeting up at the Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. It’ll be a home fight more or less for the 25-year-old Cleverly, although he probably won’t need the cheering from his fans in order to get past Uzelkov. All it’ll take is a good chin to hold up under Uzelkov’s occasional big right hand shots and a steady workrate to beat him down.
All Time Historical Survey Series Recap – The Original 8 Weight Classes & P4P
by Geoffrey Ciani – Over the course of a sixteen month period beginning in June 2009, I conducted a series of surveys that all began with a very simple question: Who are the ten best heavyweights of all time? While contemplating my own list of top heavyweight pugilists, I decided gathering the input of others might help display a more accurate portrayal of what a ‘true’ top 10 list should look like. Now of course this is not an exact science by any means. In fact, quite the opposite, it is an extremely subjective topic that is often skewed by personal bias, differences of opinion, individual tastes and preferences, and most importantly the absence of a universally agreed upon criteria with which to judge past fighters. Even with these inherent obstacles playing their natural role, however, we can still establish some degree of consensus.
The guidelines were simple. I had every person who voluntarily participated in each survey provide me with a chronological list of who they considered to be the ten best (heavyweights, middleweights, etc) in boxing history. Ties were not permitted, just a straight-forward list from one to ten. I then used a weighted-points system to assign values to fighters based on where they appeared on each individual’s list. First place votes received 25 points. Second place votes were worth 15 points, third place votes were 12, and fourth and fifth place votes were worth 10 and 8 points respectively. After that, the point differential was constant, with sixth place votes getting 5 points, seventh place votes getting 4, eighth getting 3, ninth place 2, and tenth place 1.