Roy Jones Jr. talks about fighting Bernard Hopkins in February

Speaking with Ben Thompson of FightHype, Roy Jones Jr. revealed that Bernard Hopkins has agreed to a 50-50 split for a potential February rematch between the two living legends...with a wrinkle. If the fight ends in a knockout, the winner receives 60%, with the loser getting 40%.

When asked why Roy thinks Bernard supposedly changed his mind about a 50-50 split, he had this to say:

"I guess the power of the people. When people read that interview you did, I think they probably realized that it wasn't Roy holding up the fight, you know what I mean? Before they were saying Roy this and Roy that, but it ain't Roy. Roy ready to do whatever the people want to see Roy do. Roy ain't got no reason to fight Bernard. Roy ain't chasing Bernard for no reason. Somewhere he had in his head that I'm chasing him. I'm not chasing him."

Jones said a few weeks ago that he believes the public isn't interested in Hopkins fighting Tomasz Adamek or Chad Dawson, and I thought that might be interesting to look at, so we did a small poll and it turns out Roy might just be right. 344 people answered in that poll, and 216 said they'd prefer Hopkins fight Jones in a rematch for his next bout. 72 picked Dawson, 45 picked Adamek, and 11 picked the ever-dangerous Other.

And then the more I thought about it, the more I liked the fight, for both of them. Hopkins going up and winning the legit championship at cruiserweight from Adamek would be quite meaningful and yet another feather in his cap, but it's no gimme fight whatsoever, and I really do believe that poll might be the real deal. The public would rather see Jones-Hopkins II. It's two legendary names going at it in a rematch that is long overdue. There's no question Roy won the first fight, but there's also no question Hopkins got a lot better after that.

I also still believe that a fast-handed fighter that can outwork Hopkins is a guy that can beat Hopkins. Jones hasn't beaten an opponent on that level in years now, but B-Hop might still be tailor made for him, even considering that Hopkins is still universally considered a pound-for-pound top ten fighter and Jones is considered shot by most.

Jones also said he's even received a contract:

"[Golden Boy] sent a bad contract, but of course, my lawyer John Wirt is on top of that. We won't be signing that one, but we'll figure it out."

And he added that he believes the fight is being talked about for February, but that he'd fight in January. He also has no plans to scrap his December 2 fight in Australia with Danny Green.

Some people might see it as a Seniors Tour event, but I say bring on Jones-Hopkins II. There's legit dislike between them, they're talking about a very interesting way of doing the split, and I think they're two guys that genuinely want to shut the other one up after all these years.