Bernard Hopkins Eyeing Final Fight in June

Bernard Hopkins has defied both the odds and father time throughout his 30-year professional boxing career. But, 2016, he concedes, is likely to be the last year we'll have the privilege of watching The Executioner compete in the ring.

At 51-years-old, Hopkins has fought a who's who of world boxing's premier middleweights and light heavyweights such as Roy Jones Jr., Joe Calzaghe, Chad Dawson, Jean Pascal, Sergey Kovalev and Oscar De La Hoya.

Boasting a record of 55-7-2 during this inspiring 30-year run, Hopkins has earned multiple world titles across the middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight divisions respectively—including the IBF, WBC, WBA (super), WBO and The Ring middleweight championships.

Aged 49 years young, B-Hop won his last new title against Kazakhstani brawler Beibut Shumenov. This split decision victory saw him retain his IBF light heavyweight title as well as take home the WBA (Super) Light Heavyweight title for the first time back in 2014.

Now, it appears Hopkins is looking to fight one last time for a final curtain call to a glittering career in pugilism when summer comes.

Speaking to FightHype, the Philadelphia native said: "I'm 90% out, but I'm really thinking about the names that I'm going to hear in the next week or two that's going to be mentioned for me to do a fight in June. If it's not in Philly, it'll be close to it."

Hopkins' last outing was towards the close of 2014, which saw him drop a unanimous decision to the seriously-talented Russian Sergey Kovalev—losing his light heavyweight titles in the process.

Without the lure of retaining or winning further titles in the offing, it appears the wear and tear of three decades-worth of professional fighting is starting to become more apparent.

"My back is a little tired to keep holding the fort after 28 years. This year I'm done. Whether details get together or not, I'm done. I'm completely content."

There is a lack of names rumoured for Hopkins' final outing, but The Executioner has previously campaigned to compete against Armenian-German ring technician Arthur Abraham before his split decision victory over Britain's Matt Murray. However, the victorious Abraham has since had a fight scheduled for his WBO super middleweight title—one of the few which has long eluded Hopkins—against Mexican Gilberto Ramirez in April.

Hopkins has also long-campaigned to face off against Gennady Golovkin as he calls a close to his career. Considering the much-vaunted name of Hopkins', "GGG"'s management at K2 Promotions could be interested if the Kazakhstani knockout machine gets beyond American Dominic Wade later in April (which is more than likely).

However, at this point, it doesn't really matter who Hopkins fights in his final appearance in the ring. In an unparalleled career—its longevity as impressive as the accolades to its credit—Hopkins has accomplished what many can only dream of—and even those dreams could be deemed as being unrealistic.

It's hard to define what is the most special about The Executioner's 30 years of professional boxing. Is it his 20-fight run off successful middleweight title defences—an all-time best, by the way. Is it Hopkins' obvious and aforementioned permanence at the top of middleweight and light heavyweight boxing picture?

Either way, Hopkins' career has been steadily built through crafty defence, being an unmoveable ring general and some near-perfect boxing fundamentals—testament to the fact he can still compete at the world level in his fifties.

Let's hope Hopkins gets the last hurrah he deserves come June, ending a certain Hall of Fame career in the right way.