Bernard Hopkins: No Retirement For the 46-Year-Old Legend

Despite a dubious TKO-2 loss and a shoulder injury suffered against Chad Dawson on Saturday night, 46-year-old Bernard Hopkins says he has no plans to retire, according to ESPN's Dan Rafael.

Hopkins (52-6-2, 32 KO) has one more fight left on his HBO contract, which could be a rematch with Dawson (31-1, 18 KO), or something like a fight with young titlist Tavoris Cloud, or something totally unexpected, as Bernard has been known to do the unexpected before. I think we're very close to a legit retirement for Hopkins, but it's not coming yet. As mentioned before, he didn't look in really great shape on Saturday night, but we did just get about two rounds to gauge him, so he may have been fine in that area. He was a little soft, but he's also a little old.

What do you want to see? Are you really interested in a Hopkins vs Dawson rematch? It's the fight that makes the most sense, I guess, but there was little demand in the first place and I don't think what we got means there's much more for a second go at it. But a fight with Cloud probably wouldn't light the world on fire either, and a third fight with Pascal is just totally unnecessary. And past those four, there are very few legit choices at 175. Maybe if someone came up from 168 pounds, but right now those guys are all fairly busy, too.