The last time Bernard Hopkins lost a fight, Bill Clinton had been president of the United States for four months. Now, after 11 years of waiting, “The Executioner” is talking about a rematch with the man who beat him: Roy Jones Jr.

But first things first. Last Saturday night in Las Vegas, Hopkins fought a cautious, tactical fight before knocking out Oscar De La Hoya with a left hook to the liver midway through the ninth round. Their encounter was for the undisputed middleweight championship of the world. But until the knockout, most of the drama in the ring stemmed from the personalities and stakes involved.

The action itself was sparse. For the first six rounds, Hopkins chose to bide his time and counterpunch; then, in the seventh, he stepped up the pressure behind a more aggressive jab. Two of the three judges had Hopkins comfortably ahead at the time of the stoppage. This observer had him leading 77-75 (five rounds to three) when De La Hoya went down.

Hopkins was, as predicted, clearly the better fighter. With De La Hoya now slumped in his rearview mirror, he can move ahead with a planned 20th defense of his middleweight crown, then perhaps a meeting with Roy Jones in the ring for the second time.

But first, Jones (49-2, 38 KOs) must prevail in the ring this Saturday night against Glencoffe Johnson (40-9-2, 27 KOs).

For years, Jones was regarded as “pound for pound” the best fighter in the world. One reason for that was his May 22, 1993, unanimous-decision victory over Hopkins. But the Jones legend had other building blocks as well, most notably his dominant victories over James Toney and John Ruiz.

The latter win made Roy the first fighter in more than 100 years to have moved from the middleweight championship to a version of the heavyweight crown.

Thereafter, Jones returned to the light-heavyweight division. On May 15, 2004, he suffered a surprising one punch knockout loss at the hands of Antonio Tarver. It was Jones’s only real defeat as a pro. His other loss came on a questionable disqualification against Montell Griffin in 1997 that was avenged via a first-round knockout later in the year.

Great fighters who get knocked out (or take a beating without being stopped) seldom do well in an immediate rematch. Thus, Jones has opted for Johnson rather than Tarver as his first opponent after the fall.

Johnson started his career with 32 consecutive victories over hand-picked foes. But over the past five years, his record has consisted of eight wins, nine losses, and two draws. The key to his success (such as it has been) was a 2003 decision over an out-of-shape Eric Harding that gave him some cachet.

Then, when Tarver vacated the International Boxing Federation 175-pound title, Johnson defeated England’s Clinton Woods. Hence, Jones-Johnson is for the IBF light-heavyweight crown.

The assumption is that Jones will win. That’s where things get interesting.

Jones has gotten bigger since he first fought Hopkins. Bernard has gotten better. Both men are getting on in years. Jones is 35 and Hopkins is 39. More significantly, Jones has begun to slow down. And as Hopkins observed earlier this year, “If Roy Jones loses his reflexes and speed, the things that he has used to dominate, he becomes average. He’s a sitting duck.”

Hopkins has made a record 19 consecutive defenses of his middleweight title. At the post-fight press conference following his victory over De La Hoya, he told the media, “I want number 20. Then I’ll seek big fights out of the middleweight division.”

The biggest and most lucrative fight for him would be a rematch against Jones, assuming that Jones beats Johnson. This begs the big question: If Jones beats Johnson, will he opt for a rematch against Tarver, a rematch against Hopkins, or neither of the above?

HBO, which has rights to Jones’s fights, would be happy with either opponent. But they’ll be pairing Jones-Johnson with a replay of Hopkins-De La Hoya this Saturday night on HBO.

Tarver, meanwhile, is an unhappy camper.

“Sometimes I think the people at HBO have dementia,” he complains. “They let Roy play them like a fiddle. They’re televising this fight, and I can’t get a TV date. Can you imagine what would have happened if I’d gone to HBO after knocking out Roy and said, ‘I don’t want to fight Roy again, but pay me $4 million dollars to fight Glencoffe Johnson?’ “

Ironically, the man in the driver’s seat is Jones. Hopkins and Tarver are both coming off big wins, but Antonio is too big for Bernard. Thus, despite having lost his last fight, Roy Jones will be in position to dictate the next big matchup between 160 and 175 pounds.