Bernard Hopkins Takes His Final Fight

Boxing legend Bernard Hopkins has his eyes set on a final farewell fight against WBO super-middleweight champion Arthur Abraham for January of next year. Rumors of the matchup began brewing months ago, but in an interview with Fight Hub this past weekend, it seems that the 50-year-old is coming closer to settling negotiations for the match to take place.

According to the interview, both parties' promoters want the fight to happen and only a few small details hang in the balance. While Hopkins has said plenty of times that he'd retire in the past (he did, after all, promise his late mother that he'd stop fighting at the age of 40), this time he appears to be more serious about calling it quits.

"I'm looking to go somewhere in January, I guess before the Super Bowl at the Barclays Center, which has set aside a date for me and do my last one," Hopkins told Boxingscene.com. "My thing is I want to fight someone who is credible, someone you have to take honest. Arthur Abraham has a gritty-type of style and I want it to be promoted as the last one."

In his last outing against Sergey Kovalev back in November of last year, Hopkins was thoroughly beaten throughout a 12 round decision-loss and many observers believed age had finally caught up with the timeless fighter. As of now, the weight class of which a proposed bout with Abraham would be contested in is unknown, but if Hopkins is aiming for a third title belt in a third weight class, it would need to take place in the 168lb super middleweight division, a weight he's never competed in and hasn't been below in over a decade. While Hopkins has shown masterful skill in controlling his weight, and has regularly come in a couple pounds below the 175lb light heavyweight limit, cutting a solid 5-6 pounds for a fight is no easy feat for someone who would be 51 by the time the bout took place.

And at 43-4 with 29KOs, Abraham is no a slouch either. Though he was thrice beaten during his participation in Showtime's "Super Six" tournament, he has thoroughly dominated his competition since, losing only once against Robert Stieglitz in four-fight series between the two, and excluding Andre Ward, Abraham is the longest established and most dominating champion in the division. Some may argue that Abraham is also past his prime and that the super middleweight division is a comparatively weak division, but given the traditional leeway often assigned to farewell fights, choosing someone like Abraham is actually quite impressive.

Stylistically, a fight between the two could make for an interesting contest. Abraham is fairly one-dimensional, and has trouble against slick fighters, as seen in his bouts against the two Andres, Dirrel and Ward. Hopkins also has a notorious ability to pick out top-level fighters where he sees a visible flaw to exploit; just look at Kelly Pavlik, Jean Pascal and Tavoris Cloud. The only real questions are how much the nature of time will have affected Hopkins's abilities, and with Abraham still being a considerable puncher in the division, how well punches will be taken.

If the fight does indeed take place for Abraham's WBO belt and Hopkins emerges victorious, he will then beat his own record for being the oldest boxer to win a championship at the age of 51, set previous by him when he beat out Cloud at the age 49. In the past, the accomplishments of Bernard Hopkins have almost been a statement against the conventional confines of nature, and that human beings are capable of more than we're led to believe. This potentially being the last of those statements could be a defining moment for the sport's history.

Looking at Hopkins's resume is like looking at a Hall of Fame roster. His recent matches of the past five years were all matches that nobody necessarily expected him to take. He's certainly earned the right to take an easy fight to close his 27-year career. To instead propose to fight a legitimate champion, and to do it at his age is one hell of a way to exit out of the sport.