De La Hoya: Hopkins could face Chavez Jr or GGG, he won't retire

Oscar De La Hoya is certain that as Bernard Hopkins will not retire yet, even as "The Alien" closes in on his 50th birthday after the most one-sided loss of his career to Sergey Kovalev. The Golden Boy founder and President even has a couple of possible opponents in mind for Hopkins.

"He could do down and challenge, let's say, a Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. or he could challenge a fighter like ‘Triple G,' who could come up to 170 pounds or 168. Fighters like that, why not? I don't know what he'll do but one thing for sure that I know is that he's not going to retire."

Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KO) was soundly defeated by Kovalev (26-0-1, 24 KO), shut out on all three scorecards, which is a damn hard thing to do with anyone, let alone a fighter on Bernard's level. It's a testament to Kovalev's talent and game plan -- which De La Hoya called "perfect" -- and in all reality, didn't seem to be because Hopkins had lost anything between his recent wins and this fight.

Chavez recently signed a deal with Al Haymon, but may get tied up as Top Rank says he owes them one more fight, and then is free to do as he pleases. As for Golovkin, he'll face Martin Murray on February 21 in Monte Carlo.