B-Hop Unretires; Moving up to Heavyweight

America’s new boxing hope: Bernard Hopkins?

“The state of the heavyweight division in America is dead,’’ Hopkins said. “Bernard Hopkins is the only boxer who can bring the title back.’‘

Sounds like

Hopkins is pretty set on coming out of retirement. But moving up to heavyweight? Bernard, that’s unheard of!

So what drove Hopkins to do this?

“I was watching that fight and it when it was over, it hit me,’’ Hopkins said. “Rahman was supposed to be the last line of defense for the America heavyweights. He couldn’t do it. But I was inspired to comeback and do it. It’s not something that is unheard of. Michael Spinks did it. Roy Jones did it. I can do it.”

“I know people are going to give me a hard time about coming back,’’ Hopkins said. “But I think this is a special reason to come back. This is about restoring something back to America. I believe I can be America’s heavyweight savior.

As of right now, Hopkins is planning to meet Oleg Maskaev in June 2007. Will Maskaev even have the title by then? He has a fight with Peter Okhello in December and still has to face Samuel Peter in a mandatory defense. 

I think this is a good move by Hopkins - He’s been itching to fight again ever since he retired in June and I believe he still has the skills necessary to come out of this with a win over a top heavyweight.

However fighting at heavyweight is a big difference than middleweight and even light-heavyweight. Hopkins says that the weight is not a problem, but is he prepared to take a punch from 240 lbs of Maskaev? Another downside is that losing may spoil the huge victory he had over Antonio Tarver.

With a bunch of confirmed and possible fights in the heavyweight division over the next few months, it’s going to be a lot of fun to see how this all plays out…

Posted by John Chandler on Sep 18, 2006 at 02:46 PM
Heavyweight • Light Heavyweight • Middleweight • Antonio Tarver • Bernard Hopkins • Oleg Maskaev • Peter Okhello • Samuel Peter

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