Bernard Hopkins Will Return to the Ring Prior to His Proposed Bout Against Jones

Posted by A. Shakoor on 10.09.2009

Seriously, he's taking a tuneup in his hometown.

Bernard "The Executioner" Hopkins (49-5-1, 32 KOs), will step in to the ring on December 2nd against Enrique Ornelas (29-5, 19 KOs). The bout will take place in Bernard's hometown of Philly at the Liacouras Center on the campus of Temple University. The bout will air on the Versus network and take place on the same day as Roy Jones Jr.'s cruiserweight fight against Danny Green in Australia. Versus and promoters are hoping to show the Jones/Green fight on the same day via tape delay.

It's a bit of a surprise that the 45 year old Hopkins is taking a risk with a big payday on the line against his 41 year old nemesis, Roy Jone's Jr. However, Hopkins hasn't been in the ring since his brutal defeat of Kelly Pavlik last October. He thinks it would be best to take a tuneup and get sharp against the aggressive journeyman, Ornelas, before he fights Jones sometime during the first quarter of 2010 on HBO pay-per-view.

source: espn.con