At 49 years old, "The Alien" Bernard Hopkins is the oldest champion in boxing history. He has his sights set on unifying the light heavyweight division at 50 years old, with strong champion Adonis Stevenson up next on his hit list. Beyond that though, B-Hop wants to make history with Floyd Mayweather Jr.
"It's another page," Hopkins said of beating Beibut Shumenov on Saturday. "Every page is history. Money is great but history is something you can't get rid of." Mayweather is 45-0 right now, and could be seeking to top Rocky Marciano's magic record of 49-0. With Hopkins approaching half a century of life, he has a brilliant promotional campaign.
Hopkins defeats Shumenov by questionable split decision
"After I become the undisputed light-heavyweight champion of the world, if there was one big fight out there, I know what I would call it -- 50-50. He wants to pass Marciano. He wants to get to 50 and I am 50. That would be huge," Hopkins said. "I would love to do that. But let me get past Stevenson first."
Stevenson would be a tall order, even for an athlete as conditioned and skilled as B-Hop. Stevenson is 23-1-0 with 20 victories by way of knockout. He's scheduled to fight Andrzej Fonfara on May 24, but a fight with Hopkins is certainly the plan after he moved to Showtime.
Stevenson's only loss came in 2010-since then he's racked up 10 consecutive victories by stoppage and shown improved boxing skills each time out. He is much more than a one-trick pony, and his quickness combined with his power might be dangerous for a fighter as old as Hopkins.
However, Hopkins should never be counted out. Should he come out of a Stevenson fight with a win a matchup with Floyd Mayweather would be interesting indeed, even if the weight situation would take some working out.
A fight between these two is almost certain never to occur, but it is a fun matchup to think about.
Read more about Floyd and Hopkins' future plans @SportsWN
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