Bernard Hopkins turned 50 years old today and he has one thing in mind for a birthday present.
At the Stiverne-Wilder press conference today Hopkins made it clear that he wants one more fight at 50 years old and he wants it to be a title fight. This isn’t the first time he’s expressed those sentiments:
“I want to fight one fight at 50 but I want it to be a meaningful fight,” Hopkins told ESPN.com this week. “I’d rather it be a championship fight and I’d like it to be done in a timely fashion, hopefully before June. We have to see what makes sense and what don’t.”
“But for right now, I am not retired. In 2015 I’m looking to do something at 50 to make history and to keep proving that age is nothing but a number. But whatever happens, I’m comfortable with it.”
“I will not sleepwalk my way through something. I have too much pride [to take a small fight]. I’m not going to be a circus act for anybody. I don’t have to, but I want to keep us old guys relevant. But I know I can’t do it for my entire life.”
In terms of opponents, there’s a big name on his list:
“He [Golovkin] has nobody to fight who anybody cares about,” Hopkins said. “It would be the best teaching to a student other than what I did to Kelly Pavlik. But I think Triple G is better than Kelly Pavlik. I can fight at 168 with no problem.”
Hopkins wasn’t KO’d by Sergey Kovalev so it’s not a given that he gets caught by ‘GGG’ either. HE stands a chance at making it through 12 rounds and leaving as a warrior.