Fight Lover's Forum 12.04.09: Bernard Hopkins' Destiny

Posted by A. Shakoor on 12.04.2009

This week, Fight Lover's Forum is taking a look at Bernard Hopkins' options at this point of his career, and how it will ultimately end.



At this point, it looks like the great Bernard Hopkins needs to come up with a plan B. Before this past Wednesday, he was all primed and ready to knock off some rust against Enrique Ornelas, and then prepare to fight a long awaited rematch against Roy Jones Jr. in the early part of 2010. Of course, Australia's Danny Green ruined those plans with a first round TKO over Jones Jr., to effectively end Roy's career. The rematch with Jones simply isn't going to happen; despite Hopkins' nonsensical rambling about the Jones fight being prematurely stopped. Even Roy didn't dispute the validity of his stoppage, and no amount of wordplay or clever promotions on Bernard's part can make Hopkins v. Jones II a reality.

Hopkins held up things on his end Wednesday night by dominating Enrique Ornelas. It wasn't a very good performance but it was good enough. After the first few rounds, I texted Ryan Bates that Hopkins may finally be showing his age. However, from the fifth round on, Hopkins showed some of the effective clean punching and bullying tactics that we've all seen over the years. Several times, Ornelas was severely wobbled, and similarly to the Pavlik fight, Hopkins nearly scored a KO late in the final round. Overall, I don't think this fight showed Hopkins to be over-the-hill at all. Hopkins has often fought down to the level of his competition throughout his career. He's also always been a slow starter for the most part. What concerned me earlier on, was the way Ornelas landed flush shots on Bernard early in the bout. I think Hopkins was just rusty, and though he may have lost a tad bit of elusiveness, the main issue was likely a lack of motivation, and an underestimation of Ornelas' heart.

I was hoping that Hopkins would score the KO in this bout, because he's long overdue for one. Much like many of his fights, he landed flush shots, and hurt his opponent without knocking him out. Hopkins doesn't have one punch KO power, yet he still hits very hard. He usually doesn't have the handspeed to cause the TKO, but he seems to always land the most power shots. Hopkins just beats people up. And that's what he did Wednesday night.

Where Does He Go Now?



Hopkins should just retire because he's a legend, he accomplished more than most fighters, and he has nothing left to prove. But that's the thing with B-Hop-he always feels like he has to prove himself. It was quite embarrassing, listening to the ring announcer go on and on and on about Hopkins' accomplishments and attributes before he approached the ring for the Ornelas fight. Bernard's amazing career speaks for itself, and he was about to fight in front of his beloved hometown crowd. Why did he feel the need to try so hard to put himself over?

A sports psychologist would have a ball with Hopkins as a patient. He's constantly on the defensive-like he's the same rugged, "unknown" middleweight champ of the 90's fighting for respect, money and recognition. He's past that now. Ever since he destroyed Felix Trinidad earlier in the decade–in one of the greatest performances I've ever seen–Bernard has been in the "in-crowd" at the upper-class of the sport. Bernard has remained on the top-ten P4P list, and has increasingly edged upward on the all-time rankings. He's made 10's of millions of dollars, and has a post-fight career is already set up as a promoter and part-time boxing analyst. For some reason, he still wants to fight on, and achieve some level of "greatness". Since Hopkins doesn't understand that he's already reached it, I fear that his career will end in pathetic fashion like his rival Jones Jr., and his business partner, Oscar De La Hoya. Hopkins has already disregarded numerous chances to go out on "top". Now he's destined to hang on too long.

Hopkins says that his current goal is to fight heavyweight champion David Haye, so that he can retire as the heavyweight champion of the world. First of all, Haye has to get past John Ruiz in the spring. I still don't trust Haye's chin, so we'll see how that turns out. If Hopkins eventually fights Haye, or Ruiz for that matter, I don't like the matchup for Bernard. His smothering, bullying style won't work on guys that outweigh him by 15-30 pounds. I'm also reluctant to believe that the clever footwork and counterpunching he used against Trinidad, Tarver, and Pavlik, will work with over 200 pounds on his naturally smaller frame. Don't get me wrong, I think it's possible for a brilliant fighter like Hopkins to beat Haye or Ruiz, but I don't like the matchup for him. But what if he wins? That just means he accomplished what Jones Jr. did. Will that be enough–finally–for Bernard? I doubt it.

Chad Dawson has been calling Bernard out, and that's a fight that makes a lot of sense for Hopkins; if he doesn't take my advice and retire. Though Dawson could possible outwork Hopkins like Taylor and Calzaghe did, I think Hopkins would beat Dawson. Prime Taylor, and Calzaghe were much, much more aggressive than Dawson. Bad Chad has all of the offensive tools, but I question his lack of a mean streak. I think Hopkins would land harder punches, and bully Dawson to a clear decision. But would that be enough for Hopkins–to retire as the undisputed king at 175? Unfortunately, I doubt it.

Bernard Hopkins has always fancied himself as a throwback fighter. His heroes are Sugar Ray Robinson and Archie Moore. Those two greats fought too long, and ended their careers in a whimper–a shell of their past greatness. Bernard Hopkins is one of my all-time favorite fighters. There have been several times over the past decade when I've hoped that he would ride off into the sunset while still respected as an elite fighter with noting left to prove. His most recent dominating victory over Ornelas in his hometown, gives him another great opportunity to say goodbye. Right now, we freshly recognize Bernard Hopkins as one of the very best active fighters in the sport, and of all-time. There's nothing left to prove. Why not walk away?

Bernard won't walk away. He'll hang on too long, and taint his legacy like so many greats. He's a throwback. He's going to end his career as an old washed up fighter–in old washed up fighter fashion.