By Edward Chaykovsky

Bernard "The Alien" Hopkins, 50-years-old, is ready to end his 27-year career with one more fight.

According to Hopkins, talks are ongoing to challenge newly crowned IBF super middleweight champion James DeGale, with the fight being targeted for the month of October in London - with HBO televising the showdown.

DeGale (21-1-1, 14KOs) captured the vacant IBF belt on May 23rd in Boston with a twelve round unanimous decision over Andre Dirrell. Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KO) has been inactive since dropping a twelve round decision in his light heavyweight unification with Sergey Kovalev last November.

In an exclusive interview with the Philadelphia Daily News, Hopkins said: "I'm interested in beating a guy up - the same guy that beat up Dirrell."

Hopkins, who captured world titles at middleweight and light heavyweight, wants to capture a belt at super middleweight before retiring. Hopkins never fought at 168, electing to jump from 160 to 175 several yeas ago.

HBO has given Hopkins a deadline to get things in order for his final career bout.

"I have to make my decision before the end of June," Hopkins said. "I'm glad that HBO wants to exercise that option, and, of course, I would want to do it if the right opponent is there and it makes sense to both sides."

Before a Hopkins-DeGale fight can get serious (at least on a title level), Hopkins has to get classified in the IBF's super middleweight rankings.

"There's a few things that would need to fall into place," IBF president Darryl Peoples said. "But, given what he's accomplished, we would give Bernard due consideration if he petitioned to be reclassified as a super middleweight. To date, nothing formal has been presented to us."