By Luke Furman

Yvon Michel, promoter of Artur Beterbiev (9-0, 9KOs), has revealed that the International Boxing Federation has ordered his boxer to face living legend Bernard Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOs) in an IBF light heavyweight eliminator.

Hopkins, 50-years-old, was last seen in the ring on November 8th when he lost a twelve round unanimous decision to current IBF/WBO/WBA champion Sergey Kovalev.

Beterbiev was in the ring on June 12 in Chicago, when he defeated American Alexander Johnson by TKO in the seventh round.

The two sides have until Thursday to accept the fight. If Hopkins (ranked at 3) or Beterbiev (ranked at 2) pass on the fight, then it would fall on Erik Skoglund, who is ranked at 4 or number 5 ranked Isaac Chilemba.

It will be interesting to see if Hopkins accepts, because it's doubtful that he wants a rematch with Kovalev and it's doubtful that HBO would be interested in a Kovalev-Hopkins rematch.

Beterbiev may also take a pass on the opportunity, because there are ongoing discussions to make a fight with Kovalev on November 28th in Russia.

Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org.