30.01.07 – By John Chavez, BoxingConfidential.com: I’ve been a long time observer of Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins. I’ve seen nearly every single one of his professional fights. I attempted to catch his title defense against Howard Eastman but ended up missing the flight to the Staples Center and raced home like a madman in time to watch the live performance. Ricardo Lois, my colleague here at Boxing Confidential still teases me about the missed flight. I made a nice chunk of change wagering on Bernard against Felix “Tito” Trinidad. I also made an even nicer chunk of change wagering on him against Oscar De La Hoya…..
I celebrated when he conquered former light heavyweight kingpin Antonio Tarver as if my first born child was born.
Now I will say this… I will not pay to watch a bout between him and Roy Jones Jr.
There’s no point to this match-up. The proposed Jones-Hopkins fight is about as meaningful as the upcoming Fernando Vargas-Ricardo Mayorga bout. These fights have no meaning.
At this point in Roy’s career he has done nothing to warrant a PPV showdown with the old man. He lost three times in a row getting brutally stopped in two of them and faced a non-descript opponent on an even more non-descript PPV sometime last July.
Who in their right mind would even fathom that Roy is a top five light heavyweight contender?
The man has shown a plunge in his physical ability reminiscent of the stock market dive post 9/11. His ability to absorb punishment is in line with that of paper mache, he just falls apart.
Bernard, if you’re going to fight the faded Roy Jones Jr., at least let the public believe he has a chance. Hell, even the Tyson-Lewis match-up was considered somewhat viable, since Mike was going into the fight with a six fight win streak. Roy at this point needs to rebuild his already severely tarnished reputation.
Let him fight a Paul Briggs or even a Danny Green type fighter to show what he has left. As of now, the man is considered pretty much done.
There are so many more intriguing match-ups for Bernard to make. There’s the obvious showdown with the Welshman, Joe Calzaghe. This fight I would pay for. There’s even the match-up with middleweight southpaw Winky Wright. This fight I would pay for. He could even fight the winner of Jean Marc Mormeck and O’Neil Bell. I would even pay for that fight.
I say Bernard, let’s just leave the negotiations for Roy Jones were they should be, dead in the water. Show your fans that the broken promise to your mother was for legacy reasons and not just for an easy payday against a faded former champion.