By Kirk Jackson
In the wake of the virtuoso performance of Floyd “Money” Mayweather 46-0 (25 KO’s) over Saul “Canelo” Alvarez 44-1-1 (38 KO’s), the ageless wonder Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins 53-6-2 (32 KO’s) made a bid to fight the long reigning P4P king.
If this fight were to happen, that would be an event in itself and would feature an unlikely match-up between this era’s best fighters.
I have tremendous admiration for the skills and careers of both Mayweather and Hopkins.
It could quite possibly go down as the most boring high profile fight of all-time. I personally do not think too many fans would be interested in that match-up.
Floyd can barely make 154, can’t even weigh-in over 150 pounds and he is supposed to move up to the middleweight class of 160 pounds?
Hopkins hasn’t fought at middleweight since 2005. He would be better off challenging the super middleweight king Andre Ward 26-0 (16 KO’s).
And if Mayweather were to move up to middleweight, he might as well challenge Sergio Martinez 51-2-2 (28 KO’s) for the lineal championship.
There is intrigue in a Mayweather-Martinez match-up, would probably be a more crowd pleasing affair compared to a bout with Hopkins and if victorious, Floyd could become the first fighter to capture lineal championships in five different divisions.
The binding contract Martinez has HBO would obviously pose a problem being that Mayweather is locked in as the main man at Showtime.
So if not Hopkins or Martinez, then who?
Danny Garcia 27-0 (16 KO’s) is coming off an impressive win over Lucas Matthysse 34-3 (32 KO’s) and appears to be getting better with each fight.
Garcia may actually be a few fights away from facing Mayweather. It may be better off in the long-run if Garcia fights the winner of Adrien Broner 27-0 (22 KO’s) and Marcos Maidana 34-3 (31 KO’s), before hypothetically matching up the winner against Mayweather.
Amir Khan 28-3 (19 KO’s) has been mentioned along with Devon Alexander 25-1 (14 KO’s). These two have a showdown towards the end of the year, with the winner potentially earning a shot against Mayweather.
Some people still think Manny Pacquiao 54-5-2 (38 KO’s) is the only guy that can defeat Mayweather.
Aside from the stylistic nightmare that poses for Pacquiao that many people refuse to acknowledge, there is also another problem as well.
He is only coming off a devastating knock-out loss against Juan Manuel Marquez and prior to that setback, he suffered defeat by the hands of Timothy Bradley.
And before his current losing streak transpired, Pacquiao hasn’t exactly looked good in his fights.
He did not look prime in his third encounter with Marquez, or in his fights against Joshua Clottey, Shane Mosley and Antonio Margarito.
The last time Pacquiao looked like an unstoppable force was against Miguel Cotto back in November of 2009.
Pacquiao needs a redemption of sorts before he can realistically be brought in the discussion of facing Mayweather.
It’s hard to come back from a devastating knock-out, especially at age 34. But what does work in Pacquiao’s favor is his comeback begins against Brandon Rios 31-1 (23 KO’s).
No disrespect of Rios, he is a tough fighter and will try his best to play spoiler, but he is tailor made for Pacquiao.
Rios is also coming off a defeat, in which he accumulated a lot of damage. Rios is moving up in weight for this fight, he is flat-footed and a crowd pleasing action-packed styled fighter. Rios will not have the elusive foot movement, or counter-punching prowess that gives Pacquiao problems.
Pacquiao will have to win against Rios and win in emphatic fashion if he wants to place in bid in the Mayweather sweepstakes.
Until then all these pieces fall into place, the public will be left wondering who will be the next opponent for Floyd Mayweather in 2014.
