Source: Boxing Scene
According to Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, 43-year old Bernard Hopkins is considering continuing his career after flirting with the idea of retirement. Sound familiar?
To break subject (sort of) briefly, who else is absolutely sick to death of hearing about how everyone is going to retire? For God's sake, Tommy Hearns isn't even Hall-eligible yet because he fought in 2005 and again in 2006. Most of these guys aren't really going anywhere any time soon.
Anyway, Schaefer said before that Bernard would consider fighting again if it was against another big name, an older sort with the ability to add to Bernard's legacy. Looks like he's got a couple of ideas.
Rematch with Tito Trinidad
This one was floated right after Hopkins' loss to Joe Calzaghe, since Tito and his father/trainer/advisor want to keep fighting, but also don't want to dip below the 170 pounds that got Trinidad smoked by old Roy Jones in January.
What would this add to Hopkins' legacy? It'd add a couple mill or so to his bank account, sure, and it's hard to argue against that. When the 40-0 Trinidad faced Hopkins in 2001, he was knocked out in the 12th round and beaten so thoroughly (down 109-100, 107-102 and 107-102 at the stoppage) that he went into his first retirement.
Trinidad was not an elite fighter at 160 pounds in 2001 (he did dominate William Joppy at middleweight, to be fair), and he was anything but an elite fighter blown up to 170 against Jones, following his second retirement after a 2005 drubbing against Winky Wright.
Hopkins-Trinidad was a mismatch before. It would be so once again, even though Hopkins would be super duper old and Trinidad would just be old and too heavy.
Would you pay for this fight? I would not.
Rematch with Roy Jones, Jr.
There is more intrigue here. Both are at the end of careers that didn't stop twice already, Jones is coming off of a convincing win over Tito and Hopkins is coming off of a competitive loss to one of the best boxers on the planet.
This would only come about, one would suspect, if Bob Arum and Frank Warren come to an agreement to stage Calzaghe-Pavlik in November instead of Calzaghe-Jones, which has been the long-standing rumor. Arum and Co. seem very intent on getting Pavlik into that fight, perhaps following the criticism of Pavlik fighting Gary Lockett.
Anyway, while Jones-Hopkins II is not something I really WANT to see at this point (it would've been compelling years ago), I'd prefer it heavily over Hopkins-Trinidad II.
They first fought in 1993. That was 15 years ago. The world has changed massively in the 15 years since they first squared off, and a rematch would in almost no way resemble their first encounter or even have a whole lot to do with it.
So with the changes in the fighters (older, slower, not as powerful, etc.), who wins? That's why I find this one more compelling, because I'm not sure. Hopkins is exceptionally smart in the ring, but Jones still has a little flash about him. I'd have to favor Bernard simply because he's been at the top level (and remains there) while Jones slipped pretty hard, but it's also worth remembering that Roy had a very long way to fall.
If one of these two fights was absolutely going to happen, give me Hopkins-Jones II every day of the week and twice on Sunday. It's another one I wouldn't be thrilled to pay for, but I think I'd probably pony up the cash if a solid undercard was included -- I know, don't laugh. It'd also mean we'd get Calzaghe-Pavlik, a fight I absolutely love.