Tweet
Bernard Hopkins will be the first to admit that his Oct. 26 mandatory light heavyweight title defense versus Karo Murat is–at best–means to an end. Few if any give the visiting Murat any shot of winning, nor does Hopkins–even at 48 years old and having celebrated his 25th anniversary as a prize fighter–expect very much credit with a win, no matter how dominant a performance he delivers.
What he expects to come of the night, however, is a super fight down the road. Against whom that opportunity would come isn’t immediately known, though he has been approached with the crazy idea of facing Floyd Mayweather Jr., as early as next May if it could possibly happen.
That Hopkins is actually entertaining the fight has already caught a small buzz in boxing circles, prompting the future Hall of Famer to clarify the rumors.
“I’ve had no conversations, but it was said to me,” Hopkins said, claiming that he was approached on the subject and simply responded. “(Showtime) owe him fights in May of next year and asked me whether I’m willing and can I make 160. A guy like me with that much time to train for it, I said, ‘Sure!’ They didn’t look like they was joking.”
Hopkins hasn’t made the middleweight limit since Dec. ’05, when he dropped his second consecutive disputed decision to Jermain Taylor in a failed bid to regain the middleweight crown he’d previously held for more than a decade. His first loss to Taylor ended a historic championship run featuring 20 alphabet title defenses, as well as six more of the lineal crown he claimed after destroying then-unbeaten superstar Felix Trinidad in Sept. ’01.
[Click Here To Read More]
What he expects to come of the night, however, is a super fight down the road. Against whom that opportunity would come isn’t immediately known, though he has been approached with the crazy idea of facing Floyd Mayweather Jr., as early as next May if it could possibly happen.
That Hopkins is actually entertaining the fight has already caught a small buzz in boxing circles, prompting the future Hall of Famer to clarify the rumors.
“I’ve had no conversations, but it was said to me,” Hopkins said, claiming that he was approached on the subject and simply responded. “(Showtime) owe him fights in May of next year and asked me whether I’m willing and can I make 160. A guy like me with that much time to train for it, I said, ‘Sure!’ They didn’t look like they was joking.”
Hopkins hasn’t made the middleweight limit since Dec. ’05, when he dropped his second consecutive disputed decision to Jermain Taylor in a failed bid to regain the middleweight crown he’d previously held for more than a decade. His first loss to Taylor ended a historic championship run featuring 20 alphabet title defenses, as well as six more of the lineal crown he claimed after destroying then-unbeaten superstar Felix Trinidad in Sept. ’01.
[Click Here To Read More]
Comment