Bernard Hopkins won't accept a 50-50 split to face Danny Green. (Photo by John Gichigi / Getty Images)

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ESPN.com's Dan Rafael reports that negotiations have crumbled between 44-year-old legend Bernard Hopkins and the man who ruined his planned rematch with Roy Jones Jr., as Danny Green refuses to budge from a 50-50 split demand.

Promoter Gary Shaw, who was negotiating on Green's behalf, says that Hopkins won't come down from 60-40. I'm sure both of them feel they're quite right here, and you can make arguments for them. Bernard Hopkins is Bernard Hopkins, the Hall of Famer-in-waiting, who has been in a lot more big fights than Green has.

But on the other hand, a fight in Australia -- where this draws the most money -- means that Green is the one pulling in the vast majority of the money.

According to Shaw, Hopkins and Green had agreed to a 50-50 split, with Bernard also getting at least a $3 million guarantee. Richard Schaefer then supposedly went to HBO and worked out a deal where the network would buy the fight for about $2 million. But when they all got back together, Bernard rejected the split, and Green said to forget it.

As Schaefer tells it, there was never a set deal:

"There was a deal presented to Bernard and me where Danny Green offered 50-50. We countered that deal and said we would agree to 50-50 if we can keep the U.S. [television] money or put into the joint account in effect the same amount of money which was available to them from the U.S. TV rights for the Jones-Green fight. That in return was declined by Green."

Shaw says that Danny Green will look to fight either Puerto Rican Manny Siaca or Antonio Tarver. Siaca (22-6, 19 KO) held a super middleweight title earlier in the decade, which he lost to Mikkel Kessler, and most recently fought at middleweight. Green's last three fights have been at 180 pounds, and Siaca really hasn't done anything since that 2004 loss to Kessler, except losing to Silvio Branco in 2006. Put simply, Green-Siaca is a lame fight.

On the other hand, Tarver and Green were set to meet in 2007 before Tarver ducked out to fight the much lesser-regarded Danny Santiago in one of the worst fights of that year. I'm still mildly interested in seeing Green-Tarver settled. Tarver acts like it never happened and Green mostly took the high road on the matter, but it surely bothered Green greatly and might still.

As for Hopkins, I don't know what he plans to do. He can fight Chad Dawson but I get the feeling he won't, and unless he makes what I have a suspicion would be an ill-fated jump to heavyweight, what is there, really?