Bernard Hopkins has plenty of excuses to fight Roy Jones Jr.

Bill Dettloff at The Ring has a pretty interesting article up right now on Bernard Hopkins, who seems to have every excuse under the sun for fighting a rematch against Roy Jones Jr. on April 3.

Here is what Hopkins has to say now about the rematch:

"It really is important that I stay busy more than it is about fighting any particular person, especially Roy Jones Jr. It’s not like I would turn down any other fight that was meaningful to fight Roy Jones Jr. So it’s not like it’s an obsession. It’s just something I’m left with."

That's all well and good, I guess, if it didn't reek of a lie and wasn't clearly inconsistent with what he said about the fight no more than 10 days ago:

"This fight ain't about [money], this is personal. I feel Roy was the last fighter to beat me."

So it kind of sounded like an obsession, a personal vendetta.

Hopkins had excuses then for not fighting Chad Dawson (does nothing for him), Lucian Bute (Bute is scared), Paul Williams (also scared, but no one is exactly asking for this fight). He said Danny Green was "possible," but by that point his negotiations with Green had totally fallen apart, and to be fair to Bernard, it seems like Danny Green suddenly believes himself to be the Australian Muhammad Ali.

Now Hopkins says there wasn't enough money to fight Chad Dawson. He says Tomasz Adamek is at heavyweight now, so that's out. He says Bute's people just aren't interested. He pulls the race card about himself and Shane Mosley not fighting for a year after they beat Kelly Pavlik and Antonio Margarito.

In short, Bernard is Bernard. Sun to set in west tonight. And no matter what he says, he's fighting Jones, there's nothing anyone can do about it, and the choice is yours to pay to see it or not.

He's also right about one thing: I think he's crazy (in a gutsy way) to be targeting the Haye-Ruiz winner for later this year.