By Rick Reeno

Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas - Former unified middleweight and light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (55-7-2, 32KOs), 50-years-old, is still planning to return to the ring in the first half of 2016.

Hopkins has been out of the ring since a November 2014 twelve round decision loss to Sergey Kovalev.

"The Alien" tells BoxingScene.com that he's planning to keep a close eye on tomorrow's super middleweight title fight at the Tui Arena in Hannover, Germany.

Arthur Abraham (43-4, 29KOs) tops the card, and defends his WBO super middleweight title against Martin Murray (32-2-1, 15KOs).

Hopkins would have loved to travel over to sit ringside, but his promotional duties as a partner in Golden Boy Promotions has him situated in Las Vegas for Saturday's anticipated showdown between Miguel Cotto and Saul "Canelo" Alvarez.

"That fight [between Abraham and Murray] is on my radar. I hope Abraham wins, but he's in a real tough fight and the other kid could take it," Hopkins told BoxingScene.com.

Hopkins aims to return for the final time "by May."

"It's still happening [that I'll fight next year]. HBO and everybody else is on board. We're looking at a few possible opponents and hope to have something soon," Hopkins said.

The WBO mandatory is Gilberto Ramirez (who fights later tonight at the Cosmo in Las Vegas) and the Abraham-Murray winner was recently ordered to face him by the sanctioning body.