By Keith Idec
Bernard Hopkins had to use all of his defensive tricks and experience to avoid getting knocked out by Sergey Kovalev in the 12th round of Hopkins’ last fight.
Two years later, the legendary light heavyweight from Philadelphia knows Joe Smith Jr. will come to finish the job December 17 in Inglewood, California.
Long Island’s Smith (22-1, 18 KOs), who knocked out Polish contender Andrzej Fonfara (28-4, 16 KOs, 1 NC) in the first round of his last fight, will try to become the first fighter to knock out Hopkins in their 12-round HBO “World Championship Boxing” main event at The Forum.
Hopkins has seven losses on his record, but the 51-year-old former middleweight and light heavyweight champion hasn’t been knocked out during a 28-year professional career that began 11 months before Smith was born.
“I definitely wanna out-do myself come December 17th, and look good, look spectacular,” Hopkins said during a conference call Wednesday to promote their fight. “And that’s what I’m gonna do, and that’s what I need. I believe I have the right opponent, a champion, to bring those things out of me. He’s a puncher, coming to destroy me. He’s a hard worker, he’s a union guy, he won’t run, he won’t lay back and try to execute. He’ll try to do what he has to do. I need that.
“That’s always been my game. So, like I said, that makes a good fight, when you’ve got matchups with guys who wanna fight and they come to fight, and risk getting hit and getting hurt themselves. That’s what boxing needs, when it comes to excitement, when it comes to building a fan base. That’s music to my ears.”
Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOs, 2 NC) hasn’t fought since Russia’s Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs) dropped him in the first round and dominated him over 12 rounds during their November 2014 light heavyweight title fight at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
