Hopkins Once Again Joins HBO Broadcast Team - Kovalev-Pascal II

By Jake Donovan

The 2016 HBO boxing season will begin the same way its 2015 season concluded in regards to the on-site broadcast team.

For the second straight time, former middleweight and light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins will join Jim Lampley and Max Kellerman on the call, as well as newly elected Hall of Fame boxing historian Harold Lederman, who resumes his role as the network’s unofficial scorer.

Hopkins once again replaces Roy Jones Jr., although both remain in HBO’s rotation of expert analysts.

This weekend’s main event is a light heavyweight showdown between unbeaten, unified titlist Sergey Kovalev and former lineal champ Jean Pascal, taking place at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada (HBO, Saturday, 9:45 p.m. ET/ 6:45 p.m. PT). The bout is a rematch to their title fight last March, in which Kovalev (28-0-1, 25KOs) scored an 8th round stoppage in the very same venue.

Also on the show, undefeated welterweight Dmitry Mikhalenko faces late replacement Karim Mayfield, who stepped in on less than two weeks’ notice for an injured Ray Robinson.

The decision to have Hopkins on the broadcast stems from his familiarity with the main event players, having faced both.

“Bernard has fought both guys – Sergey and Jean – so he has unrivaled insight into this matchup,” Ray Stallone, vice president of media relations for HBO Sports informed BoxingScene.com. “He also worked the first Kovalev-Pascal telecast on HBO.”

The future Hall of Famer fought to a draw with Pascal (30-3-1, 17KOs) in Dec. ’10 before winning their rematch in May ’11, at the time becoming the oldest fighter in boxing history to win a world title.

Hopkins would lose the belt to Chad Dawson in their April ‘12 after having fought to a No-Contest six months prior. He went on to break his own record, at age 48 lifting a light heavyweight belt from Tavoris Cloud in March ’13, then becoming the oldest to defend and unify at least two belts, the latter coming in April ’14 at age 49 in a lopsided 12-round win over Beibut Shumenov.

Seven months later, Hopkins conceded his hardware to Kovalev in their three-belt unification bout. Despite the loss, the fight itself represented so much more.

Hopkins (55-7-2, 32KOs) has performed as a commentator even prior to his return to HBO with the aforementioned loss to Kovalev. The opportunity to work as an expert analyst – having done so on other outlets as well - was a motivating factor in returning back to the network, a final step in bridging a once mighty gap between HBO and Golden Boy Promotions.

“Coming back to HBO, I was able to do three things,” Hopkins explained. “One, putting myself in position to beat Sergey Kovalev to collect the belts – I lost the fight (Kovalev scored a 12-round unanimous decision over Hopkins last November), but I was still able to get that fight. Two, it brought Oscar (de la Hoya, founder and CEO of Golden Boy Promotions) and HBO back together, allowing the two to once again do business together.

“And then three… it got me this color commentating gig!”

Hopkins filled in for Jones on the 2015 season finale of HBO’s Boxing After Dark, despite the fact that his own fighter – Luis Ortiz (Hopkins is a managing partner at Golden Boy Promotions, Ortiz’ promoter) headlined the December 19 show. It helped that his opponent, Bryant Jennings hailed from Hopkins’ hometown in Philadelphia, Penn., as the now 51-year old boxer/promoter/announcer offered full disclosure at the start of the telecast.

It will undoubtedly be made aware at some point that he has faced both Kovalev and Pascal, after which he will be looked upon to provide expert analysis on both boxers as well as the in-ring action that transpires.

Barring unforeseen circumstances, it’s a role that both he and Jones will perform in the future.

“Bernard is part of the HBO boxing broadcast team; Roy is the lead (expert) analyst,” Stallone confirmed. “You must have depth.”

Jake Donovan is the managing editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox