EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: BERNARD HOPKINS
By G. Leon
GL: Can you give us some thoughts on your bout with Chad Dawson and its unfortunate conclusion? "Yes I can Greg. First of all, the fans got cheated out of what I feel was going to be a great performance and a great fight. When it's all said and done I believe the fight would have heated up and become something. I believe an intentional, to hurt or end my career, and Chad Dawson said he'd be the first fighter to end my career, now I know what he meant. Maybe he was hoping he'd throw me so hard I'd hit my neck and be paralyzed from the waist down.
"I know a lot of people have wanted a lot of things to happen to me in the game of boxing over the years and fortunately for me, they always come a little close. Antwun Echols, Robert Allen, I've been through this before Greg. I'm not innocent in boxing as far as when it comes to old school boxing. But I've never bitten anybody's ear and I've never intentionally picked up my opponent and throw them to the canvas. We all know about the shoulder move in boxing. It's an offensive-defensive move. Floyd Mayweather uses it very well, I use it very well and James Toney was the best at it in my era. If it was just that, I would have never went down that way. But when I'm lifted off my feet leveraged out and then thrust to the floor, that's something different. To me the intent was to hurt me. I understand we're in the hurt business, but this is not the MMA and this is not football. Tackling should not be allowed and the film speaks for itself. What people saw speaks for itself. If anybody else has an opinion or agenda based on what I may or may not have done in the past. Max said people would say I did certain things and that I got hit low and it didn't look that hard, well who's to say when I get hit in the nuts if it hurts or not when I'm the one who got hit in the nuts?
"When people start bringing up stuff that had nothing to do with last weekend Greg to justify what was a dirty move, it's done to slay me and make it seem like I got what I deserve because they have a reserve hatred to get me out of the game by any means necessary. I've enticed and aggravated the hornets nest, especially with my last two performances and after Chad Dawson missed with those bombs and I tapped him on the chin with an uppercut, the referee said that it wasn't a knockdown, but it was the same thing Tarver did when the glove kept him up. They took a knockdown from me and I didn't bitch when Chad used his forearm to push my neck into the ropes. The tape doesn't lie and I'm not even bitter, because when you know what's been going on for many years and you know that these young boys would rather foul me and get disqualified now than fight with me because I have a history of destroying the younger fighters. Now it's not about trying to win the fight, that's the hard part if they can do it. Now it seems it's about getting me hurt by any means necessary."
GL: I imagine the goal is to get the result changed to a no contest and get your belts back, correct?
Bernard Hopkins: "That's being nice! (laughs) That would be the easiest thing to do. My suggestion was that he is disqualified, because if I had done it there would have been no question I would have been disqualified. I believe all seperate entities will look at the tape and see that the referee never gave me a count and unlike Vegas where the refereee told me if you don't continue you're going to lose by TKO even though it was a foul. The referee said nothing but can you continue. I said yeah, with one hand. And he wouldn't allow it. Look at the footage and listen to the audio and look at the referee. How do you rule TKO there?
GL: I thought it was a no-contest all day.
BH: "Just like certain fighters fight too long and it looks like it, not their record, their performances. What about other jobs? That's why there is the word retirement. Maybe Pat Russell has been a good referee and he's done some matches over the years, he's a senior referee, maybe that's why he got the main event. But at the end of the day he blew it."
GL: How long will this injury keep you sidetracked?
BH: "First of all anybody who thought I was faking is going to have to backtrack and come another way because I never met the doctor who diagnosed me until I arrived at the emergency room. I'm taking the MRI and after the resuls come back tomorrow, I'll know when I can start my therapy. I don't want to go under the knife because that would delay me. Like I said I'm waiting on the results from the MRI which were done (Tuesday) at the Novacare center where the Phillies and Eagles get their injuries looked at."
GL: What message do you want to send to Chad Dawson?
BH: "The message I want to send to Chad Dawson and Gary Shaw, you don't have to worry about somebody asking him if they're going to give me a rematch. It's not a fight the world wanted to see from the start, and he sure didn't want to be in there from the start and he's not going to have to worry about a rematch once the powers that be do what is obviously the right thing. And I don't want the fans to let his intentional foul steer them away from buying Pacquiao-Marquez or any other PPV fights that come up in 2012. You can't judge boxing on one fight and I think the fans should hear that from me."
GL: How damaging to your future as a PPV fighter was that result?
BH: "I don't think it has any damage, people have TV's and they can see. I think it shows that Chad Dawson who couldn't bring flies to shit or bees to honey, I know what it does to his, but for me I think people will remember the Pascal fight as my last fight because I did nothing to entice him into intentionally fouling me. Maybe he thought I was going to be dirty so he wanted to be dirty first. I don't know what was in his head, but I know what he did. If anything I think the fans saw me get fouled and this should only help my fanbase, because now the world is seeing these young guys can't beat me without having to foul me. People saw what it was, I feel like I'm overkilling it now Greg, have a good night and send my love to your family."
