Looks like the rumors weren't far off. Despite a first round knockout loss in December to Danny Green, Roy Jones Jr. will get another payday when he faces Bernard Hopkins in a rematch 17 years in the making. The two will meet at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on April 17. The fight will be on pay-per-view.
60-40 nobody cares about this fight. 60-40 they don't crack 250,000 buys on pay-per-view.
Here's what Richard Schaefer had to say about this farce:
"I think there is so much at stake for these guys. This is an event they have been waiting for for 17 years. They would not let anything get in the way of getting this fight finally done. I believe very strongly that at this point in their careers, after everything they have accomplished, I think this is a well-deserved fight for these two guys to finally get it on April 17. Love 'em or hate em, they are two of the most recognized names in the sport of boxing."
There is really nothing at stake for either of these guys. There is no personal issue here anymore. It's been 17 years since they fought, and about six years since this rematch was truly desirable. They're a couple of aged boxers looking to cash out.
Hopkins, who turns 45 on Friday, knows Jones is his safest "big money" opponent. Jones, who turns 41 on Saturday, knows Hopkins is unlikely to do any real damage to him. It's really as simple as that. This fight is about absolutely nothing but money, and if their guarantees are good, then good for them. They played the system one last time, because this fight is going to bomb on pay-per-view.
If you think about this from a business standpoint, it's almost funny. The last time Hopkins and Jones were in major PPV spots, they both tanked. Hopkins' October 2008 fight with Kelly Pavlik did awful numbers, and the next month, Jones' fight with Joe Calzaghe did even worse if you compare it to expectations. With the support of the worst HBO "24/7" ever, Calzaghe-Jones was expected -- by someone, apparently -- to do about 500,000 buys. It didn't do half.
Who would look at the economy, look at where these two guys are at in their careers, factor in their last PPV performances, and say, "Hey, let's stick this on PPV. Spend some money on it, too!"
I had some mild interest in this fight before Jones lost to Danny Green, but now it's just pointless. It's a Senior Tour event. Jones has not won a significant fight since 2003, when he beat Antonio Tarver in a fight a lot of people felt he lost. That same year, he beat John Ruiz for a heavyweight trinket.
Nothing on his record since then has been impressive. He has a win over a chubby Tito Trinidad and a win over triple-shot Jeff Lacy, who couldn't even hang with Jermain Taylor a year before he fought Jones.
As for Hopkins, I kind of feel like maybe we should re-evaluate where he's really at. He clearly has no intention of taking a serious fight against a serious contender. He did not look impressive at all against Enrique Ornelas in December -- he looked like the Bernard that beat Pavlik, except a little slower and against a worse fighter. It's no great shame to suggest that at 45, he's not exactly at his best anymore.
And his insistence on fighting Jones in this rematch doesn't say to me that he wants Jones that badly, it says to me that he doesn't want anyone else that badly. There are lots of fights they could have made instead. Hopkins has been trying to excuse Jones' loss to Green since the day it happened, serving as the world's only person to call it an early stoppage.
Weeks later, Jones filed a lame protest about the hand wraps, which I'm guessing will go away without much more coming out of it. They've been trying to excuse the loss so they could convince anyone that this meaningless rematch should go ahead.
They'll also be going head-to-head with Showtime's Super Six World Boxing Classic, a double-header featuring Carl Froch v. Mikkel Kessler and Andre Ward against the winner of Sakio Bika-Allan Green.