Bernard Hopkins to fight in early December in preparation for Jones

Bernard Hopkins says he'll take a tune-up fight in early December to get back in boxing shape and mind, according to The Ring.

"Richard [Schaefer] is working on (the tune-up fight) right now," Hopkins said. "I'd rather go straight into the Jones rematch but he had already committed to the Danny Green fight, and I didn't want to be inactive since last October.

"I don't like tune-up fights. There's a lot of risk involved. I almost missed out on my fight with Oscar De La Hoya when he struggled with Felix Sturm in a fight that was supposed to build up our match."

Most likely Hopkins will fight a non-dangerous journeyman, or at least I'd guess. Jones' fight with Danny Green is likely to be a much more difficult matchup than Bernard will take. Hopkins sounds like he just wants to shake off the rust before he gets in with Jones again.

Hopkins also elaborated on his reasons for fighting Roy a second time after all these years:

"In many ways it's a grudge match for me," said Hopkins. "I respect Roy as a fighter and what he's accomplished in the ring, but I don't like him as a person.

"He jerked me around for many years and used me, with the lure of making a rematch, just to get leverage in his negotiations for other fights. I once flew to Florida to try to get a deal done, man to man, but he didn't treat me like a man. Instead, he threw a lot of dirt in my face, and I haven't forgotten about it.

"That's going to get me through many long days of training with Naazim Richardson for this fight."

...

"I'm at the crossroads of a two-decade-long journey," Hopkins said. "What better way to end my career than by beating the one man who can say he really beat me? To me, that would be a story book ending to my career."

As for availability of Jones-Hopkins II, it will be on HBO pay-per-view. Hopkins also says they might present his tune-up fight as a small PPV, but that he'd prefer to get it on a basic cable network as a special show, and is willing to take a pay cut to make that happen, so that more people can see it.