Mayweather vague on bout with Hopkins

FOLLOWING his latest record-setting performance on Saturday night in Washington, D.C., 49-year-old boxing legend Bernard "The Alien" Hopkins expressed interest in fighting Floyd Mayweather after Hopkins' next expected bout with Adonis Stevenson.

Mayweather (45-0, 26 KOs), considered the world's best boxer pound-for-pound, was asked yesterday about that possibility, but didn't exactly offer an answer, saying, "I think everybody is trying to hit the jackpot and fight Floyd Mayweather, from heavyweight all the way down to flyweight."

He was speaking on a teleconference with reporters ahead of his May 3 welterweight title fight against Marcos Maidana in Las Vegas.

Mayweather, 37, said he caught only the beginning of Hopkins' split-decision victory over Kazakhstan's Beibut Shumenov in which the North Philadelphia-raised boxer became the oldest to unify world championships, this time at the light heavyweight division.

"I watched the first couple rounds and I thought that Bernard Hopkins was losing the fight and then I went for a 6-mile run," Mayweather said. "So I guess when I was doing my 6-mile run, I guess he picked the pace up and I guess he was victorious.

"I can't take nothing away from Bernard Hopkins. He's a legend. He's a legend like myself. You know, of course, you get your biggest pay day when you're taking Floyd Mayweather."