ATLANTIC CITY – Bernard Hopkins fought his last professional fight last night at Boardwalk Hall. Or so he says.
Oscar De La Hoya is planning a potential retirement fight in September.
Roy Jones isn’t what he used to be. Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson are long gone, and even 38-year-old Antonio Tarver, who challenged Hopkins last night, won’t be around much longer.
By this time next year, boxing will be without two of its biggest attractions, Hopkins and De La Hoya, and what’s troubling some is the lack of new stars on the horizon, stars like De La Hoya and Jones who generate big revenue by appealing to more than hard-core boxing fans.
“It’s a huge concern, a huge concern,” De La Hoya said recently. “I think about where are we going to get the next payperview star? What’s going to happen when all these top guys retire, which is almost near?
There’s really nobody out there to fill that void and it’s a huge concern.” Promoters of last night’s Tarver-Hopkins bout were hoping to generate somewhere around 350,000 to 450,000 pay-per-view buys at $49.95 each for last night’s card. That’s about half of the 875,000 that bought De La Hoya’s fight with Ricardo Mayorga last month. There won’t be another De La Hoya for a while, but the sport needs some fresh stars to step forward.
Jermain Taylor, the current middleweight champ, could become the kind of fighter who earns mass appeal.
But he faces a tough task next week when he defends his crown against Ronald “Winky” Wright in Memphis. Floyd Mayweather Jr. could emerge as boxing’s biggest attraction, especially if he fights and wins against De La Hoya in September.
As partners in Golden Boy Promotions, De La Hoya and Hopkins will be searching for the kind of talent and opposition that can create big business.
“We have to strategize and come up with a solution,” De La Hoya said.
“There’s going to be a big void for many years. I don’t think the fighters of today can attract the masses the way these past fighters have, like Tyson, Jones and myself.” Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico headlined a pay-perview bout last night from the Garden, but the national numbers weren’t expected to be much over 150,000 buys, if that. Cotto is popular in Puerto Rico, but not in the United States, and fits into the group of upcoming boxers who are good but not great. Add Ricky Hatton, Wladimir Klitschko and Wright to that list.
Hopkins earned greatness by making a record 20 successful defenses of his middleweight crown and will be remembered as the top middleweight of his era. It’s a Hall of Fame career that actually began with a loss in this city only months after he had served time in prison.
“That loss was another way of trying to break my spirits,” Hopkins said. “But I went forward again. And from 1993, a decade and some years later, 21 defenses later, Bernard Hopkins showed the world that if you knock me down and I’m not out, watch out.” Hopkins no doubt will be missed. He doesn’t just give good quotes; he preaches sermons and his life is a testament of how sport can be used to rehabilitate.
Sure he has his enemies.
But boxing is an industry filled with a mixture of love and hate.
What Hopkins always wanted was respect.
Just like there may never be another De La Hoya, replacing Hopkins won’t be easy, either.