With all the hype that always surrounds who will Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s next opponent be, adding in a fighter that is a superstar on his own level will only boost that hype.
With the ageless wonder, Bernard Hopkins, making it clear that he would like to get his shot at Mayweather, some buzz has begun to build, as shown by the Garcia’s talking about the possible bout in the video below.
Most potential bouts that concern Mayweather most pertain to fighters at around 147-154 pounds who could be the next in line to try and give the pound-for-pound king his first loss.
With Hopkins, we’re talking about a fighter who fought his last bout at light heavyweight only a week ago, so saying weight will be a factor is an understatement.
Hopkins claims that he can get down to 160 pounds, but with Mayweather striking a 152-pound catch weight with Canelo Alvarez in their bout last month, thinking Mayweather will jump to 160 is ridiculous.
Add the already enormous weight discrepancy that exists with Mayweather fighting comfortably at 147 pounds and Hopkins at 175 pounds, Mayweather said he actually had to eat hoards of food the day of the Canelo fight to get his weight back up over 150 pounds, as he lost a few pounds after the weigh in the day before.
With each weight division a fighter jumps up, some speed is lost due to the added muscle as fighter must add to bump their weight up.
Mayweather largely relies on his speed to pick-and-pop his opponents, usually putting on a boxing clinic any the majority of his fights.
If Mayweather went up to 160, he would have to adjust to fighting a slightly different strategy since he won’t be as fast and Hopkins may gain some speed while losing some power if he dropped the 15 pounds he would need to make the 160-pound catchweight.
With all the variables and unknowns there is very little chance that Mayweather will take Hopkins up on his offer. Chalk this one up to the list of “I wish I could see that bout” as this bout is as likely as happening as a Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight taking place.
