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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. [details]
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. [details]
... it would be fun seeing Bernard fight Calzaghe... but i would like to see Calzaghe unify the SMW division first...
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