Bernard Hopkins Exclusive Interview
by Geoffrey Ciani - I was recently afforded the opportunity t o have a nice discussion with future Hall of Famer, Bernard Hopkins. Bernard is currently preparing for his fight against Enrique Ornelas which is slated to take place December 2 at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Here is what Bernard had to say:
Audio:
Q: How are preparations going for your December 2 fight with Enrique Ornelas?
A: Everything is going great, man. We had a media day, it’s packed in here. This is the first time I had an open work out where they can actually tape some of the sparring. I completed ten rounds today, I completed ten rounds two days ago—Saturday rather, three days ago. So everything then is good. I’m taking this fight just as seriously as if I was getting $10 million compared to—I don’t know what I’m getting, because just based on a lot of things that you have read about, heard about, and been told about—that we are going to talk about briefly in this conversation—is that this is to me a warm-up, but not a warm-up to the point of being disrespectful that I’m going to not train or I’m not going to take this fight like any other fight. You’ve been writing about boxing and I assume about my career for more than a year, and I never take anybody lightly. You know I’m always in shape..
So I’m coming to impress the crowd, impress the fans, and let them know that provided Roy Jones Junior looks good—that doesn’t necessarily mean win or lose but I hope he wins, it makes us even better, it will be easier to sell it—that they got something to look forward to in 2010 with major fights coming back to boxing in 2010. Even with the little guys that are going to make some noise and making noise. I’m just excited man to have, like I said, a little rust be taken off in two weeks in front of my home crowd, man.
Q: Now speaking of that, how does it feel to fight in front of your home crowd for the first time in over six years?
A: Oh man. Well, I have to tell you being what? A month and a half in January from being, two months from being 45, for me it’s gratifying. It’s very, very gratifying because, like you said, the Liacouras at the Spectrum, which is going to be torn down in another two months. We just did a segment over there at the Spectrum about the legendary old fighters that fought there—Bennie Briscoe, Willie “Worm” (Monroe), and all of those guys. You know, the Philly is buzzing man. They are coming off of a little disappointment off the Phillies and the Eagles are struggling right now, but the old faithful—the old faithful, Bernard Hopkins—who reigned for ten years with the middleweight championship, twenty defenses, kept the middleweight legacy living and respected in Philadelphia. Tickets are just about sold out, they’ll be looking for a big walk-in and then they’ll be done.
Everybody’s excited about it. Everybody’s talking about it— the radio stations, the local radio stations, the urban radio stations—because not only did I come here voluntarily, but I’m opening up the whole floodgates for Golden Boy (Promotions) East to let the world know, especially some boxing people, to know that I’m just not a guy that’s got a title at Golden Boy East. I’m just not a figurehead. I am a figurehead, but I’m not a figurehead just that, and Richard (Shaffer) promised me personally that we are going to launch Golden Boy East just as big as Golden Boy (Promotions), period, as the companies because of the talent in Philadelphia and four major fighters that you heard about. You heard about (Mike) Perez, you heard about (Danny) Garcia, and of course you bring in some people from New York and some people from the west coast, and we’re going to fill this card with Golden Boy. Oscar (De La Hoya) will be in town two days before, Shane (Mosley) will be here Tuesday next week after Thanksgiving.
I’m excited, man, but I am focused. The charities that I brought up to everybody in the company and said that I want to take care of the Fallen Police Widows Foundation. I got a great relationship with Jimmy Benz and the commission and the officials in Philadelphia. They gave me a parade. They gave me a motorcade when I fought (Antonio) Tarver from the airport, eighteen police cars (on) tax people’s money. The least I can do is give out 500 turkeys next week out of my own pocket, give these three foundations—Make a Wish, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and also as I just mentioned, the Fallen Police Officer Widows, FOP. Richard Shaffer, quote, at a press conference in Philadelphia said that “Whatever it brings—$50,000, $10,000, $30,000—Golden Boy will match whatever number that the ticket sales bring in for the foundations.”
This is not all about Bernard Hopkins. Listen, if you ask people what are you getting for this fight, I can honestly tell you I don’t know, and I didn’t ask and I don’t care. My whole thing is to launch Versus through me, and some people can’t understand, “Oh Bernard! You know, you can wait and fight for $10 or $15 million and do close to 800,000/900,000 pay per view buys with Roy Jones. You can just wait, why take a risk fighting?” Because that’s what we do, well that’s what I do—I can’t say “we”. I’ve seen something bigger than just the fight. Yeah, I got a personal agenda, I ain’t going to lie. To stay sharp, to stay ready, and to be ready to fight in 2010 in Febraury, in case you don’t know, sometime in February. And again, not around the All-Star weekend and not around the Super Bowl, but they got a downtime period before that Super Bowl and All-Star weekend happen. If you got a calendar in front of you, I guess you could say, “Well Bernard that would be about the second week in February.” It’s going to be fun, man. I’m excited!
Q: So if you win your December 2 fight and Roy Jones wins his fight the same day, it looks as if the long awaited rematch is finally going to happen. Why now?
A: The timing normally is the best time to do things when it’s right, but look at the circumstances. We couldn’t do a fight. Whether it was his fault or my fault, at the end of the day, I cleaned out the middleweight division. There was nothing there for me. I beat the prime guy that probably would have been in (Manny) Pacquiao’s position right now if I wouldn’t have humiliated him, and that’s (Kelly) Pavlik. Now you’re talking about one last thing that Bernard Hopkins has to re-enter—Roy Jones Junior and Bernard Hopkins.
When HBO said, “Bernard, we can do a great 24/7”, and you know they don’t do that for every fight, “because you got a personality, Roy got a personality, and whether who’s wrong or right or whether why not, or why now, or why this, you both have a personality and a story and how you blame it all on each other and why the fight happens now”. I told Mark Tappan, I said, “I got something better for you. We’ve been going over this 50-50/60-40—Roy made a song, you remember, ’60-40 I kick your ass’, and all that stuff. We still couldn’t get a fight, that was six years ago. I said let’s do 60 to the winner. The guy that knocks the guy our or quits on his stool or TKO—60 goes to the guy that accomplished that and 40 goes to the loser. “Bernard, you did it….you came up…that’s crazy. That’s an incentive!” And we got the fight done.
How is Roy Jones going to back up out of that? I mean, he got offended because he’s been knocked out twice and he figured I was taking a jab at him, and I wasn’t. Seriously, I wasn’t. I just didn’t want him to weasel out of it again. I just didn’t want him to come up with an excuse, “Oh, I beat him in ’93, I had one hand”. We heard all the stories and the shenanigans. I wasn’t always right, he wasn’t always right—but he had said that he was—but I wasn’t always wrong. But guess what? If you look at it right now in boxing, you really have two big names that people are talking about and that’s Floyd Mayweather and (Manny) Pacquiao. They’re not going to be around. They’re not going to fight ten times, so after that what else do we got? So we have to create historic fights that people will come and see and do great numbers on pay per view.
You know what? Roy Jones and Bernard Hopkins, and especially me, I understand that people know that I am the Archie Moore of this era, and that’s what people are starting to look at. My legacy is not even worth talking—it’s worth talking about—but it’s not something people got to be reminded about. Right now, they didn’t switch the game on me and say, “Bernard, it’s about now, your longevity!” See, people are talking about your longevity now because they’re starting to really pay attention. I was wondering why it took so long! Like, “Yo! You 44! I mean, Berenard there’s no athletes at 44. You and Brett Favre and Lance Armstrong are at the top of their games that’s not embarrassing themselves. Don’t you understand ? People at 44 that work at the office are tired, and want to go home, and just got no energy! And you are in the there wrestling with young guys—three sparring partners that got careers themselves—and you’re going ten rounds without breathing?”
They didn’t switch the game up on me now. They’re not talking about my legacy in history, they’re talking about my longevity now. “You’re the Archie Moore of this era”. You know who Archie Moore was. When someone says Archie Moore and mentions my name that is like comparing somebody next to the Pope!
Q: Bernard, can you tell us a little bit going back about what first got you interested in boxing and when you first laced up the gloves?
A: What got me interested in boxing was growing up in the projects where if you had a hat on and you couldn’t fight you were going to lose it. Inner city, ghetto, survival—you had to have it. You had to have it. Either you were a wolf or you were a lamb. I don’t care if you’re in Chicago, there’s a ghetto. As long it’s America there’s a ghetto in every pile. There’s a ghetto in Arkansas! I hate to say, wherever there’s black people there’s a ghetto, because it’s all established. It has to be that way. That’s a part of the balance that they want. There are no boxing gyms in the suburbs. I don’t know where you live, man, but go to those $10 million or $5 million neighborhood houses, you go in and ask anybody, ask a doctor’s son does he want to go into a gym and be a boxer. Then go to one of them projects and go to one of them inner cities, I guarantee you you’ll see a lot of little black faces in there, and some Spanish, some Mexican, and some Puerto Ricans, and you’ll see some guys in there saying, “I want to be the next Oscar! I want to be the next Roy Jones or Bernard Hopkins.” Rich kids don’t fight, poor kids do.
Q: How did it feel to finally win your first title in your rematch with Segundo Mercado?
A: It felt great because when you come home from being ignorant in the system and people have written you off and they said that you are going to be just like everyone else in the neighborhood, and it looks that way because of the decisions I made—and I take responsibility—and you win a world title within three or four years later with nine years of parole, with the GED and nine felonies, nobody hires you, nobody wants to take a chance on you, you’re a high risk, and you become the champion of the world. If that doesn’t move any tough guy to understand that if he accomplished that, there ain’t nothing in the world that he can’t accomplish and that’s why we’re here on this phone.
That was the flame that started. Nothing could stop me if I want to accomplish something. I don’t care if it’s business, I don’t care if it’s a goal that I got to set for myself, once you accomplish something that took time and patience and some let downs and some test of will, and test of religion, and test of despair—just because you want something doesn’t mean you’re going to get it right now. But if you have patience and you don’t give up, then you become a problem to some and you become an inspiration to others.
Q: Bernard, you’re known as a master of psychological warfare with your opponents. I was recently in Puerto Rico and a lot of the natives there still remember the incident where you threw the flag in the lead-up to your bout with Felix Trinidad. Can you talk a little bit about the psychological warfare experiences you’ve engaged in over the years?
A: Yeah. I mean, the Puerto Rican thing with Tito was historic. I’m in their history book. Also, the thing with Joe Calzaghe, but let me tell you something. When you go to battle, part of the battle is if I can tell you that you’re not who you are and you’re stupid enough to believe it, then that’s good. I mean you know how many people are in corporate America who tell somebody to get a better deal that you’re not as smart as you think you are, and then you question yourself and say, “Well maybe I’m not?” I won! And you could be just as smart as I am but I took something from you because you were unsure about yourself. Anybody that has a doubt about their own ability because somebody else said it is a mental warfare. At this stage, or even back then, the mentality is very important because if you’re physically in shape and mentally you’re out of shape, you would never win. See you can get your body the right way or the illegal way hard as a rock, but if the head ain’t right and the confidence ain’t right, it’s nothing but a shell. I’ll beat you every time.
Q: Can you tell us a little bit about how you first started using the name “The Executioner”?
A: Well, executing people quick and fast and I had that mentality back then because when I started boxing, you got to remember, I wasn’t really an offensive counterpuncher or a defensive counterpuncher—I learned to do that because I wanted to have longevity in boxing. But when I first started, if you look at my old tapes, I was right in front of you like a typical Philadelphia fighter, bang’em, Rock’em Sock’em Robot. But I knew if I had that style and kept it, I’d be all scared up, scar tissues, but in 45 fights, 60 fights altogether—I’ve never been cut, I’ve never been banged up, never been beat up and never been knocked out. And I’m not bragging. I’m knocking on wood now because all these things above can happen in one fight, but for twenty plus years of fighting I’m proud to say that, not that I’m bragging, but just to tell you how I’m blessed with fortune and a good defense. I got to get some credit for it. It’s just that I believe that as time moves on in boxing, and I realized if I learned my defense which cumulates to offense, then I can be around longer and I can execute in a different way. So “The Executioner” came from executing my ability to take my talents and things I practice and execute it, and then, you do it.
Q: What did you think of Manny Pacquiao’s performance and what do you think of a potential showdown between him and Floyd Mayweather?
A: I like Floyd Mayweather, and I also thought that and I’ve said it that Cotto’s face wouldn’t hold up through twelve rounds, and I was right. I won a couple of gym bets. I didn’t get paid yet, but I’m waiting on it.
Q: My last question for you, Bernard, is there anything else you would like to say to all of the fans out at East Side Boxing?
A: Well I’d like to say to everybody on East Side Boxing that I’m looking forward for a great, great ending of my long, long Hall of Fame career, and that I hope that everybody will tune in to Versus and prepare for the Roy Jones Junior-Bernard Hopkins (rematch). As I say the title should be, I don’t know what the title of the promotion is going to be, but I say “FINALLY”—with quotes, “FINALLY”.
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I would like to thank Bernard Hopkins for his time. I would also like to wish him the very best of luck in his upcoming fight against Enrique Ornelas and his pending rematch with Roy Jones Jr. In addition, I would also like to wish him luck in his role with Golden Boy Promotions and all other future endeavors.
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