By Dr. Peter Edwards
Photo © Javiel Centeno/FightWireImages.com

When Bernard Hopkins announced his intentions to come out of retirement, I thought that at first that it was nothing more than a publicity stunt. I mean there are guys like Prince Naseem Hamed and Kostya Tszyu that announce a possible return to the ring every six months

Unlike Hamed and Tszyu, Hopkins appears to be serious about his intentions to return to boxing. Initially, he said the return was because the sport of boxing had boring due to a lack of superstar talent, and he wanted to achieve a dream of winning the heavyweight title and bringing it back to America.

At the time, all four of the heavyweight titles were held by fighters from the former Soviet Union. That is no longer the case. Since the initial return chirp from Hopkins, Sergei Liakhovich was knocked out by Shannon Briggs in twelve rounds, making Briggs the first American fighter to reclaim a piece of the heavyweight puzzle.

The win by Briggs makes Hopkins' "patriotic" quest to become the fighter to return the glory of the heavyweight division back to America obsolete. Let's be honest with ourselves, Hopkins beating Oleg Maskaev for the WBC title will do very little to restore order to the heavyweight division or restore glory to American heavyweights.

In reality a win by Hopkins would cause more chaos than order. Hypothetically, if Hopkins does happen to beat Maskaev, does anyone really believe he will stick around to defend the title? Of course not.

Hopkins will beat Maskaev, immediately retire with another achievement and the WBC would just order the two top contenders to fight for the vacant title. Imagine the heavyweight headlines if Maskaev's title was snatched by a career middleweight that accomplished two of the biggest wins of his career against fighters that made their bones in the welterweight division.

It would be an absolute joke to the heavyweight division.

The situation is similar to when Roy Jones, Jr. moved up to the heavyweight division to dethrone John Ruiz, and instead of defending the WBA title he won, he vacated the belt and moved back down to the light heavyweight level of 175-pounds.

But, at the same time it's a different blueprint than the scenario of the Jones heavyweight quest.

Jones had cleaned out the entire light heavyweight division, had close to ten trinkets around his waist and had no big money fights on the horizon. A 10 million dollar payday to face Ruiz at heavyweight was a gamble Jones was willing to take. Even if he lost, he could save face by saying that he was a much smaller man moving up by two weight classes to face a heavyweight.

Think about this, Jones did something that Evander Holyfield, Hasim Rahman, Andrew Golota and even the seven-foot Nikolai Valuev were unable to do - beat John Ruiz with ease. There no disputes, no close rounds and no sweat on the forehead of Jones. He beat him so easily that the only drama in the fight was whether or not Jones would get knocked out by a lucky punch. Ruiz was never able to land a lucky punch, actually he was barely able to land any punches.

We have a totally different situation with Hopkins, who unlike Jones has numerous opportunities that can bring him money at the middleweight and super middleweight level. There is no reason for Hopkins to move up in weight to fight Maskaev, when guys like Jermain Taylor, Winky Wright, Mikkel Kessler and Joe Calzaghe are within his reach.

There is hope.

Hopkins has mentioned Calzaghe as a second choice if the Maskaev fight is unable to get made. Imagine that, a bout with Calzaghe is playing second fiddle to a bout with Oleg Maskaev.

I just don't get the rationality of holding a Maskaev bout in a greater light than a Calzaghe bout. The storyline alone for Hopkins-Cazlaghe is enough to sell the fight. Calzaghe has been undefeated for over 13 years, successfully defended the WBO super middleweight title for almost 10 years and about to match Hopkins' record of 20 successful title defenses.

The storyline for Maskaev is simple. Great small fighter moves up in weight to fight a good big fighter. In order to win, the smaller fighter has to box and keep moving away from the bigger man. Will Hopkins-Maskaev be exciting? I doubt it. Will Hopkins stand and trade with Maskaev? Not a chance. This will be nothing more than Hopkins staying away and picking his spots while winning rounds, and probably coasting a few of them at the end.

Against Calzaghe, he is more likely to trade, the styles make for an exciting fight and the storyline sells the packing. The greatest middleweight of our time, comes out of retirement to face the greatest super middleweight of our time.

Hopkins said that if he can't make history by beating Maskaev, he will face Calzaghe in order to make sure that Calzaghe does make history by breaking his record of 20 successful title defenses.

Honestly, after Hopkins moved up by two weight classes to the light heavyweight division in June and dominated recognized champion Antonio Tarver, there was no possible reason to fight on. He retired at the right moment. He was even able to finally get a foothold over the man that beat him in 93, Roy Jones Jr, because Jones was badly beaten on two occasions by Tarver.

The only reason to return to ring should be a fight with Calzaghe, because the Wales raised superstar is threatening the legacy of his career, and that is something we won't blame Hopkins for un-retiring to defend.