Living legend and former middleweight and light-heavyweight king Bernard Hopkins is still planning to have one last big fight before he walks into the sunset and calls time on his career; one of the greatest in modern day history. Talking with members of the media on Thursday in Washington D.C, the 51-year-old future Hall of Famer said he did seriously want to fight feared middleweight terror Gennady Golovkin, but that that fight is now off the table.
Hopkins said – as quoted by RingTV.com – how he wants a meaningful fight on which to go out with, and not some easy fight against a “nobody.”
“That window has closed,” Hopkins began by saying on the subject of a once-possible fight with GGG. “That’s the type of fight I wanted, to end with a bang. That’s a fight you can get hurt in. My hope and goal is to do one more meaningful fight. I’m not just going to get in there with nobody because that’s not my style. I want to fight somebody that’s going to kick my ass if I’m not ready.”
Reportedly, Hopkins is still looking at fighting reigning WBO super-middleweight champ Arthur Abraham, if Abraham can get past unbeaten Gilberto Ramirez next month, or James De Gale, the IBF 168-pound champ. Hopkins said he’d be willing to go to the UK to fight De Gale. That is certainly a fight that would attract plenty of attention in the UK, seeing as how the Philly legend has never previously fought there.
Hopkins, whoever he fights, said he will not stick around forever. B-Hop said yesterday that he will not postpone his retirement to the extent that it becomes a joke he is still fighting.
“I will be 52 next January. I don’t want to blow another summer. It gets silly now….. 52, 53, 54.…‘That man better not be fighting’ ….because then it becomes not even a story – it becomes a joke,” Hopkins said. “And I don’t want to ever intentionally or accidentally put myself in a position to be clowned because that’s what I’d be doing. So there’s a timeframe.”
It would be good to see Hopkins go out with a win. Throughout his long and storied career, Hopkins dared to be great many times, he took many risks, and he deserves to go out with the satisfaction of having had his hand raised one last time. And it is also comforting to hear Hopkins state how he knows what he’s doing, that he will not keep attempting to push the age barrier again and again and again.
Hopkins against Abraham would probably make the most sense as far as a winnable fight for the man who has during his career beaten such notables as Felix Trinidad, Oscar De La Hoya, Kelly Pavlik and Jean Pascal. Abraham is not getting any younger himself, and if he can get past the dangerous Ramirez in what is expected to be a tough and physical fight, “King” Arthur will possibly be worn enough for even a 51-year-old Hopkins to be able to beat.
Not that Hopkins has ever looked for the easy option. If he had done that, no-one would even care about seeing him box one more time at his current age. Let’s see if Hopkins can put one more title in his trophy cabinet before he finally walks away from the ring.