By Keith Idec

John David Jackson is back in Bernard Hopkins’ corner.

Jackson worked the opposing corner when Sergey Kovalev dominated Hopkins two years ago in Atlantic City. But BoxingScene.com has learned that the former junior middleweight and middleweight title-holder, whom Hopkins beat by seventh-round technical knockout in April 1997, is training Hopkins for his December 17 fight against Joe Smith Jr. in Los Angeles.

They began working together eight days ago in Philadelphia, once Jackson became available after Kovalev’s loss to Andre Ward on November 19 in Las Vegas.

Jackson replaced Naazim Richardson, Hopkins’ longtime trainer. Richardson and Jackson had trained Hopkins together for previous fights, including his win against Antonio Tarver in June 2006.

“It’s been real good,” Jackson said. “Bernard’s a real professional. He’s been around the block, so he understands what he has to do for this fight. Camp’s going good. It’s been a joy for me. Whatever I ask him to do, he does. He listens. There’s not much I really have to tell him because he understands the game of boxing.

“But there’s some small things I wanna work on for this fight because I’ve been listening to Smith talk and I’ve heard what he said. So I pretty much understand his game plan. We just have to nullify a few things, and Bernard should come away from his last fight with a victory.”

Jackson was slightly surprised when he learned Hopkins would fight again following such a long layoff. He also knew that the 51-year-old Hopkins, who swears this will be the final fight of his Hall-of-Fame career, wouldn’t want a lopsided loss to Kovalev (30-1-1, 26 KOs) to be the last memory of him in the ring.

Long Island’s Smith (22-1, 18 KOs), who’s 24 years younger than Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOs, 2 NC), scored a first-round technical knockout against light heavyweight contender Andrzej (28-4, 16 KOs, 1 NC) in his last fight, June 18 in Chicago.

“Smith is saying the right things and he has the right attitude,” Jackson said. “I don’t know that he has the right game plan, but he’s tough. He’s young, he’s strong, so we just have to be careful of certain things. It’ll be an interesting fight – definitely.”

Training Hopkins again has been interesting, too, but not awkward for Jackson, who didn’t hesitate to accept the job when Hopkins called him.

“It’s part of the game,” Jackson said. “I just took it for what it is. We were friends before he fought Sergey and we were friends afterwards. There’s a mutual respect. So it wasn’t hard for me [to work with Hopkins again]. I hadn’t even thought about it. That was back then, two years ago, so I let that go. It’s time to move on. He’s moved on. That’s why we’re here.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.