Boxing News Thread
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Grachev scores an upset over Sillakh, stops him in the 8th!!
April 27th, 2012
By Jim Dower: In a huge upset on Friday night, unbeaten light heavyweight contender Ismayl Sillakh (17-1, 14 KO’s) was shockingly stopped in the 8th round by little known Denis Grachev (12-0-1, 8 KO’s) at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas.
ISillakh was knocked down in the 8th round after being hurt by a hard right hand from Grachev.
Sillakh came into the fight as a huge favorite to win it. However, while trying to score a knockout in the 8th after seemingly stunning Grachev, Sillakh was hit with a big right hand from Grachev and badly hurt. Grachev then flurried on Sillakh in the corner until knocking him down with a left-right combination. The fight was then halted.
Sillakh seemed kind of cocky in the fight, toying with Grachev for the first six rounds. However, Grachev began to find Sillakh in the 7th and you could see the fight was turning around all of a sudden going into the 8th.
***
In other action on the card, undefeated super featherweight Javier Fortuna (19-0, 14 KO’s) defeated Yuandale Evans (16-1, 12 KO’s) by a 1st round TKO. Evans was knocked down twice before the fight was halted.
April 27th, 2012
By Jim Dower: In a huge upset on Friday night, unbeaten light heavyweight contender Ismayl Sillakh (17-1, 14 KO’s) was shockingly stopped in the 8th round by little known Denis Grachev (12-0-1, 8 KO’s) at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas.
ISillakh was knocked down in the 8th round after being hurt by a hard right hand from Grachev.
Sillakh came into the fight as a huge favorite to win it. However, while trying to score a knockout in the 8th after seemingly stunning Grachev, Sillakh was hit with a big right hand from Grachev and badly hurt. Grachev then flurried on Sillakh in the corner until knocking him down with a left-right combination. The fight was then halted.
Sillakh seemed kind of cocky in the fight, toying with Grachev for the first six rounds. However, Grachev began to find Sillakh in the 7th and you could see the fight was turning around all of a sudden going into the 8th.
***
In other action on the card, undefeated super featherweight Javier Fortuna (19-0, 14 KO’s) defeated Yuandale Evans (16-1, 12 KO’s) by a 1st round TKO. Evans was knocked down twice before the fight was halted.
Andre Ward could face Hopkins-Dawson winner
April 27th, 2012
By Allan Fox: Dan Goosen, the promoter for WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward, wants to set him up with the winner of this Saturday’s fight between 47-year-old Bernard Hopkins and Chad Dawson, according to the latest boxing news.
Goosen especially likes the idea of putting Ward in with Hopkins. However, there are a couple of things working against that fight from happening.
First off, Hopkins is likely to lose to Dawson on Saturday unless he’s given one of those gift decisions that boxing has been seeing more and more of as of late. Secondly, both Hopkins and Ward have said they have no interest in fighting each other.
Goosen doesn’t seem to care, saying to RingTV “It’s business…Look, they’ve had somewhat of a relationship, but this happens to be a sport that has somewhat of a business side to it as well.”
Even if Goosen is able to convince Ward to take the fight, I don’t see it working with Hopkins. He’s like a mentor type figure to Ward, and I doubt he’ll want to agree to that fight. It would be like Hopkins fighting a younger, quicker version of himself, and I doubt Hopkins will want to do that coming off of what likely will be a very tough fight against Dawson. That’s under the best care scenery of Hopkins beating Dawson. Looking back at their fight last October, Hopkins was getting out-worked by Dawson and he wasn’t able to keep up with Dawson’s combinations and faster shots. Hopkins injured his left shoulder in the 2nd round, and that may have saved him from a defeat on that night.
Goosen would be better off talking more about matching Ward against Dawson rather than Hopkins, because at least it would be a reality based conversation. However, it’s not a good match-up for Ward, because Dawson has a good jab, and bigger size than Ward. He’s not someone that will be pinned against the ropes and beaten like many of Ward’s opponents have been in the past. Ward also won’t be able to dominate Dawson with his jab and right hand like he did against the slow-footed Carl Froch, because Dawson throws better combinations and has a longer reach than Ward.
Dawson is clearly the better fighter than Ward on the outside, and on the inside it won’t matter, because Dawson won’t allow Ward to trap him in that kind of fight. He’ll keep the fight in the center of the ring at all times.
April 27th, 2012
By Allan Fox: Dan Goosen, the promoter for WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward, wants to set him up with the winner of this Saturday’s fight between 47-year-old Bernard Hopkins and Chad Dawson, according to the latest boxing news.
Goosen especially likes the idea of putting Ward in with Hopkins. However, there are a couple of things working against that fight from happening.
First off, Hopkins is likely to lose to Dawson on Saturday unless he’s given one of those gift decisions that boxing has been seeing more and more of as of late. Secondly, both Hopkins and Ward have said they have no interest in fighting each other.
Goosen doesn’t seem to care, saying to RingTV “It’s business…Look, they’ve had somewhat of a relationship, but this happens to be a sport that has somewhat of a business side to it as well.”
Even if Goosen is able to convince Ward to take the fight, I don’t see it working with Hopkins. He’s like a mentor type figure to Ward, and I doubt he’ll want to agree to that fight. It would be like Hopkins fighting a younger, quicker version of himself, and I doubt Hopkins will want to do that coming off of what likely will be a very tough fight against Dawson. That’s under the best care scenery of Hopkins beating Dawson. Looking back at their fight last October, Hopkins was getting out-worked by Dawson and he wasn’t able to keep up with Dawson’s combinations and faster shots. Hopkins injured his left shoulder in the 2nd round, and that may have saved him from a defeat on that night.
Goosen would be better off talking more about matching Ward against Dawson rather than Hopkins, because at least it would be a reality based conversation. However, it’s not a good match-up for Ward, because Dawson has a good jab, and bigger size than Ward. He’s not someone that will be pinned against the ropes and beaten like many of Ward’s opponents have been in the past. Ward also won’t be able to dominate Dawson with his jab and right hand like he did against the slow-footed Carl Froch, because Dawson throws better combinations and has a longer reach than Ward.
Dawson is clearly the better fighter than Ward on the outside, and on the inside it won’t matter, because Dawson won’t allow Ward to trap him in that kind of fight. He’ll keep the fight in the center of the ring at all times.
Nazim Richardson: “Think about it! You look at the first two rounds with Chad Dawson, or you look at the first two rounds of Jean Pascal in his first fight with Bernard, and who looked better?"
by Geoffrey Ciani (Exclusive Interview by Jenna J & Geoffrey Ciani) - This week’s edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio featured an exclusive interview with world class trainer Brother Nazim Richardson, who is preparing WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (52-5-2, 32 KOs) for his rematch with Chad Dawson (30-1, 17 KOs) this Saturday night. In addition, Nazim is also preparing Sugar Shane Mosley (46-7-1, 39 KOs) for a May 5 clash against WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (39-0-1, 29 KOs). Richardson spoke about the upcoming fights for Hopkins and Mosley, and also shared his views on Andre Ward as well as the upcoming that feature Floyd Mayweather Junior squaring off against Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao taking on Timothy Bradley. Here is what Richardson had to say:
Regarding Bernard Hopkins’ training and preparations for his rematch against Chad Dawson:
“Bernard’s a veteran, and as I told him not too long, a day or two ago I told him now he is a complete fighter. You hear people say this guy’s a complete fighter, that guy’s a complete fighter. Bernard now is a complete fighter because the one aspect he didn’t have it one time is he never knew when to rest. He never knew when to take a break. Now finally he’ll do that at times. He listens to his body and he’ll know when to take that break. So you know camp is different for us. Guys go into camp and say we have to have a great camp. Bernard lives the lifestyle of a fighter. So it’s not about camp. It’s just about him focusing on the task.”
His views on the first fight between Hopkins and Dawson:
“Yeah it was a disappointing outcome for all parties involved. You know people read into it and they start speculating, and you know something? That really kind of baffles me! I mean I’d understand that if we were talking about some of the newer kids, if we were talking a Danny Garcia, if we were talking about some of these new guys like Adrien Broner, because we’re still learning about these guys! But with a guy like Bernard, I don’t get it when people fall apart and say, ‘Hey you know, Chad looked strong early!’ And I ask them, ‘How many fights have we been in with Bernard Hopkins where the guy looks strong early?’ The one fight where the guy didn’t look strong early Bernard lost to Calzaghe! That was the one fight that Bernard put him on the canvas in the first round and he wound up losing that fight. You know with the Chad Dawson debacle in the first fight, like you always hear me tell Bernard, it’s nothing we haven’t seen. We’ve been here before. Robert Allen threw us out of the ring. The ankle was messed up. We had the rematch. You know it’s nothing we haven’t seen. You will hear other fighters say it, but with Bernard Hopkins it is actually true. The only thing Bernard Hopkins hasn’t seen is ‘Fan Man’ come down in the middle of his ring!”
On why he feels so many observers are being so critical of Bernard after less than two rounds of action in his first fight with Dawson:
“Because the odds are with you when you’re dealing with an older fighter. There’s always a good chance you can be right. What most people all do is when they go to fights and see fights they want to be able to tell you, ‘I told you so’. So if you notice some people could be wrong 500 time, then it’s 501 and they say, ‘See, told you so!’ You know what I mean. So guys will improve their odds if they keep saying the old guy is going to lose, the old guy is going to lose, because we feel like eventually the old guy will lose! So if I keep saying it there’s a good chance I can be right. So any inkling of showing you that will make everybody jump on that bandwagon so they can come to the gym Monday morning and say, ‘This was the kid! Didn’t I tell you?’ And they’ll keep searching for him. Think about it! You look at the first two rounds with Chad Dawson, or you look at the first two rounds of Jean Pascal in his first fight with Bernard, and who looked better? In the first couple of rounds with Jean Pascal he had Bernard on the canvas like two times! Keep counting them old dudes out, man. Pacquiao came out and put Marquez down three times in the first round, and that old timer got up and won every round after that.”
On whether he believes Bernard’s mindset is different going into the rematch because of what happened in the first fight:
“You don’t even include what happened in the first fight, because there was no first fight. It was a couple of rounds. It would be like you went into the mindset of this fight with the first couple of rounds of sparring last week. You can’t emphasize what you did in the first couple of rounds of sparring last week. You have to look at it and encompass it as a whole, and look at the entire situation. Chad Dawson is a big, young, strong kid. Who hasn’t been a big, young, strong kid in front of this old-timer. See if you put some of these veterans in here with Bernard they would be big, young, strong kids compared to what Bernard is now. So we got all that. That pressure is on that young bull. See when we talk about these younger guys and they want to say I’m bigger, I’m younger, I’m stronger, I’m faster. Okay!
The minute I hear that come out of your mouth—that you’re bigger, you’re younger, you’re stronger, and you’re faster—the minute that comes out of your mouth then you better do a Mike Tyson, because Mike Tyson proved he was bigger, younger, stronger, and faster, and he ran them old dudes out of this game! He didn’t come in and pitty-pat for twelve rounds, chess match, this, that, and the other thing. There was no crying and complaining because they thought they won that round or any of that. He came out and showed I’m bigger, I’m younger, I’m stronger, and I’m faster. There was no reason for anyone to doubt him! The judges could have stayed in the hotel when Tyson came out, because if you’re bigger, younger, stronger, and faster—we got the only sport that if you are really bigger, younger, and stronger, and that far in front—we got the only sport where, it’s over! See it doesn’t matter how many points that the 76ers go up against the Orlando Magic. They’re going to play all four quarters! We have the only sport where if you’re that much better on that night, we’re stopping it! It’s over!”
On whether he believes Bernard learned more about Chad than Dawson learned about Hopkins during the round-plus that they fought:
“That was going to happen regardless. The reason why that was going to happen regardless, I took Chad away to the under-19 tournament when he was a kid. When Chad was a kid he used to ask me questions about Bernard Hopkins. When Andre Ward was a kid he used to bug me to death about Bernard Hopkins. So these kids have been watching these guys forever. They grew up on these guys, so of course they knew more about them. Chad didn’t come on Bernard’s radar until pretty much when Bernard went to fight Pascal. Chad didn’t show up on Bernard’s radar until then, so of course he was going to learn more about him in the fight in the few seconds they had been together.”
On whether the upcoming fight between Shane Mosley and Saul Alvarez reminds him at all of the atmosphere before Shane’s fight with Antonio Margarito when everyone was counting Mosley out then the way they are now:
“And the bottom line, I even see it in Shane in his preparations, and his health, and in his response. I see a lot of similarities to the Margarito fight. You know what I mean, and people don’t remember something I said a long time ago before the Margarito fight. I said, ‘Listen, I don’t know if Shane’s going to respond like this all the time or if he’s just showing off because he’s trying to impress me because it’s my first time working with him. But whatever it is I’m going to take advantage of it’, and that’s the way I felt about it this time, too. I mean if you show me you want it I’m going to jump on top of it and try and help you get it. But Saul Alvarez is a special young athlete. He’s difficult to prepare for because he’s up and coming. So we don’t know if Saul Alvarez has a chin. We don’t know if he can take a great body shot. We don’t know these things because we’ve yet to see him do these against any athlete of extreme quality at this level or veteran experience at this level. Baldomir was an older fighter but he wasn’t a veteran.”
His evaluation of Saul Alvarez’s latest performance in his victory against Kermit Cintron:
“It’s like I told you. I can’t put a lot of credence into what Saul Alvarez has done in many of these fights, because his advantages have been so vast. There is not a fight he goes into that I’ve seen where all of the advantages weigh on his side. You can’t really prepare based on that. We have to look at the fact that this time he doesn’t have the experience that our guy has. He hasn’t been in the limelight. He hasn’t been in this level of fight where he has never looked across the ring and seen a name this big in front of him. So know we’ll find out some things. What we have to do is prepare to make sure. I equated to Shane like this. I said, ‘We didn’t know that Trinidad got up off the canvas and fought like a monster until Yori Boy Campas got him, and then we found out! And many people found out after that, but that’s when we first found out that Trinidad gets up off the canvas and can still annihilate! So we got to prepare for any surprises like that with Canelo. He might have a chin of iron, but we don’t know that yet because we haven’t really seen him been tested right.”
On whether he still feels we have not yet seen the best of Andre Ward, in reference to previous claims he made “On the Ropes” when the Super Six was just underway:
“Yeah and I told Ward when he saw me, he said, ‘Brother Nazim, you know me well!’ I said, ‘Listen brother, I still know there’s an aspect of your game that boxing hasn’t even seen, and they’ll be surprised when they see it’. The kid is special. I mean with the Super Six, I told people at the beginning of the tournament when they asked me who was going to win it. I said, ‘Actually Andre Ward and Andre Dirrell will probably be in the Finals’. But I knew they wouldn’t fight each other. I picked both of them to be in the Finals and I told ya’ll that a long time ago. When it came to Andre Ward everybody was counting him out against the Viking, against Kessler who I like. I told them Kessler did better in that fight than I thought he would do. Kessler did better against Andre Ward than I thought he would do. Allan Green did better in the fight than I thought he would do. Andre Ward is the truth, man!”
On whether he believes Andre Ward is a future Pound-for-Pound King in boxing:
“A guy once posed a question to me, a buddy of mine actually in the gym. He said, ‘If you had to pick out of these young kids a future Hall of Famer, how would you do it?’ I said, ‘You can’t pick out a Hall of Famer. You can guesstimate a champion. You can take a good guess on a kid who may do some things, or win a title, or do well, or things like that. But if you saw early Bernard Hopkins you wouldn’t have said Hall of Famer. You know what I mean. If you saw early Larry Holmes, I have some early tapes on Larry Holmes, you would have never said Hall of Famer’. So you can’t guarantee someone will be a Hall of Famer, but if a gun was put to my head the only athlete I would say that about would be Andre Ward. He’s the only kid.
Pound-for-Pound? Did you say future Pound-for-Pound? Oh! You said ‘King’, because I was going to say he should be considered Pound-for-Pound now! You know once you can make the Pound-for-Pound list, you know there’s a chance you can rise to the top of it. Like I told him, as much as I respect that little Floyd Mayweather, and I’ve known him since he was a kid and I respect that young boy. He said one time to me, ‘I’m the best undefeated fighter! The only champion that’s undefeated’, and blah, blah, blah, and I was like he must not know who Andre Ward is!
The reason why I pick Andre Ward to be a Pound-for-Pound and even a Hall of Famer, is because the one thing I don’t really worry about with Ward is I’m comfortable with Ward’s demeanor outside the ring. See I’m comfortable with Ward when it comes to that, and that’s where a lot of these superstar young boys that are coming up scare me! Like I said, think about it! If you look at a kid can you imagine your child becoming a multi-millionaire and then you still have to see him go to jail? When your kids become millionaires you figure we cool! You figure as a parent your done! I got him past, college is paid for, and he’s got enough left to send the grandkids to college. We good! Then you got to go to jail. There are jokers down the street in the projects in north Philadelphia whose parents are sitting there preparing for their children to go to jail. So this is where I get comfortable with a guy like Andre Ward. His demeanor and knowing his character, having me him, his trainer, knowing his father before his father passed, his kids, his wife, you know what I mean. He’s a solid kid! We pray nothing stupid happens because we are all one bad decision away from doing jail time, so I don’t point my fingers at anybody. Anybody can be in a bar and scuttlebutt where something stupid goes dumb, and there’s nothing worse than when something stupid goes dumb.”
His views on the Floyd Mayweather Junior versus Miguel Cotto bout and whether he sees it as a one-sided mismatch in favor of Floyd:
“Well you can’t just lock in on one-sided, because last time Floyd has been at this weight was probably his toughest contest when he fought Oscar. Cotto’s a kid who has pretty much reenergized himself. You know he felt like he went back and redeemed himself from the Margarito fight, and Cotto’s a special kid, too. So one-sided? I never count on that against champions, against guys who are true champions. You don’t see one-sided. As far out as Floyd is talent-wise, and I told people this years ago because we dealt with it with Roy Jones. When Roy Jones came along and Trinidad was coming along I told people. I told Bernard! Me and Bernard had words about this. I said, ‘You want to be the best fighter in boxing? You got to beat Trinidad. Pound-for-Pound Roy Jones is the most talented fighter in boxing. Pound-for-Pound God gave him the most gifts’. So he’s the most talented fighter in boxing. It’s like saying yes Yao Ming is the tallest guy on the team. That’s just a gift! Nobody else could be that tall if they wanted to. So Pound-for-Pound Roy was the most talented, but I said, ‘Pound-for-Pound Trinidad is the best fighter’.
Once again in this era we go through it again. Pound-for-Pound Floyd is the most talented, but Pound-for-Pound Pacquiao is the best fighter in boxing! This is why everybody calls for that and they keep looking for it. Me myself, I never pursued a girl for that long so nothing holds my interest for that long. Maybe I got attention deficit syndrome, but I ain’t never been interested in something that long except for wanting to see my grandkids to go to school. Me waiting this long to see these two guys fight there is nothing they can do to satisfy me now. For them to satisfy me in a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, then it’s got to be better than Hagler and Hearns. It’s got to be better than Hagler and Hearns. Now anybody in boxing, you say that and they’ll understand what I’m saying. If it ain’t better than Hagler-Hearns it’s a letdown to me. I got to wait six years to see two dudes fight and I get a chess match? You can keep that! I ain’t even interested anymore.”
His views on who has the tougher challenge: Manny Pacquiao in his fight against Timothy Bradley or Floyd Mayweather Junior in his fight with Miguel Cotto:
“It’s down the line. I’ve known Timmy since he was a kid, too. The beautiful thing about Timmy is that nothing you see on tape or DVD shows you Timmy Bradley. If you watch Timmy throw a left hook or a right hand on DVD you’re really not all that impressed. But how does this guy keep winning? That’s what I’m saying. Some people have mastered the art of winning. I once said that about Ward. I said Ward is the Tim Duncan of boxing. He does nothing exceptionally special, but he wins all the time. There will be no championships unless you go through him. So Tim Bradley is very much like that in the sense that you can watch him on DVD, and you can see well I can counter his hook, and I can counter his right hand, and I can do this, and I can do that. So that’s where Tim is tough. Tim is very tough in that sense, but we know if Pacquiao cracks you and hits you with that ooh-wee, and you see it time and time again when guys’ eyes get back and they say ooh-wee!”
His views on what Hopkins can do that will cause Dawson the most problems inside the ring:
“The same thing that would have caused him problems in the first had it went on—you’re dealing with a veteran! I told people two things happen every time you step in the ring competitively, every single time! I don’t care if it’s sparring. Whenever you step in the ring competitively one of two things will happen. You either take punishment or you take experience. Bernard is one of the few fighters in my life that I watched in the gym, out of the gym, on television, anywhere. Every time he steps in the ring he takes experience. He’s the one fighter I’ve never seen let the sparring partners get the better of him, and not because he was just so much more talented. Like I mean Mayweather is just better than all of his sparring partners! So I’m sure he’s probably the same way, but it’s not because Bernard was better than all of them. There are so many young guys that are actually more physically gifted than Bernard! But he will never let you have an edge regardless, and this is what makes him a special fighter—he’s creativity and still with his maturation and when I watch I tell people all the time.
We talk about a guy getting old. When I was a young man I used to go out and get the bags for the groceries. I’d carry all of them! I was so strong, and I was a freakish strong young boy. I’d carry all the bags. My family would say, ‘Why don’t you take another trip?’ ‘I got it!’, and I got all the bags. As I got a little older I’d take one or two trips. Now when I see the groceries coming in I call my sons, because I still want to get the groceries in the house but as I’ve gotten older I’ve found a smarter way and an easier way for me to still get the job done, and that’s what Bernard Hopkins has done in boxing. When he was a young boy he used to just bulldoze you and hit you with the right hand. As he’s gotten older he learned to maneuver and put you in position for the right hand. As he’s even gotten older now he’s learned to manipulate you and make you give him the shot for the right hand. We got older fighters than we got experienced fighters. Every older fighter is not an experienced fighter. That’s why I told you with Baldomir who I have a great deal of respect for, for things he’s done and things he’s accomplished, Baldomir was an older fighter but he wasn’t a veteran. He wasn’t an experienced fighter like that.”
On whether he believes Chad Dawson’s biggest advantage going into the rematch is his youth:
“It’s the same advantages that I told ya’ll that Pascal had. He’s young, he’s big, he’s strong, he’s determined—these are his advantages. Then being a southpaw would be an advantage for most people, but Bernard has handled so many southpaws. That’s kind of what’s going to trick Chad Dawson up a little bit too in a sense, because Bernard has dealt with southpaws. When you get in there and you see a guy who’s really dealt with southpaws, I mean really can do it! Every fighter says I’m a fighter, I’m a boxer-puncher, southpaws don’t bother me—you know everybody says that, and then they get in there and we watch them and we see something different. Bernard is really truthful. There is nothing you can show him in the sport except for Fan Man, unless Chad is a big enough puncher to just knock him dead. We’ve never seen that either.”
His prediction on what critics and fans will be saying about the Hopkins-Dawson rematch when all is said and done:
“Let me just tell you something that I want to clarify. Bernard’s going to be mad at me because I’m giving it to the media, because he didn’t want to give it to the media. But I will. The reason why Bernard wouldn’t do stare downs and why he didn’t want to do the stare downs from the first press conference is because Bernard, and I’m an advocate of it, too! I’m so sick of hearing about how Bernard got in this person’s head, how Bernard got in that person’s head, if he blinks his eye, did you see the way Bernard blinked his eye? Oh he’s a cagey veteran! He blinked his eye and got in the kid’s head! Oh did you see the way he tipped his hat? That made Chad mad at the weigh-in! All of this Bernard got in his head, and nobody says Bernard can fight! He always got in somebody’s head. He plays head games! Well if he can play head games why doesn’t he just sit on the couch, call the head game in, and just relax and get his check? I mean it’s ridiculous, and when he beats one of these guys he got in his head! That’s why he didn’t want to do the stare downs or nothing. You can’t say he looked in his eyes in he did that, he said something at the press conference and that did that to him. There will be none of that! It will have to show that Bernard can fight and he is still willing to train and sacrifice his body and his time away from his family to make the commitment to deal with these young guys, while these young guys are out buying Bentleys and being rock stars.
They’re going to say Bernard got in Chad’s head! ‘Chad was doing good and then when Bernard landed that one body shot he mentally did this to Chad’. Or ‘Bernard stepped around and he started mentally looking in Chad’s eyes!’ That’s how I answer the question. It’s going to be the same old, same old! Bernard got in his head! Somehow Bernard manipulated him and got in his head. It’s the same old thing! Like I said, it’s boxing. It’s boxing. People got to write something. What are you going to do? Not do your job? Somebody has got to write something! When you got a guy who’s been around as many years as Bernard what are you going to write that hasn’t been written? If you want to go back to his prison stint, this, that, or the other thing, what can you write that hasn’t been written? You got to write something!
But like I said and I told people, Chad with these young guys, and I said it a long time ago in the light heavyweight division. I said Chad is the most technically sound. Me and Bernard argued about that. He disagrees. I said Chad was the most technically sound of the young guys. Chad has never been a superstar. They tried to make him one, they do interviews, they want to make him a superstar because boxing needs superstars to go forward! The Oscars and all of these guys have retired. So they need future stars. So they pushed. So people want to see the next guy! We want to see the next thing that we can follow for a long time, because we love the sport! So they tried to make him a superstar, but he’s not! He’s a champion. He’s a guy who knows how to win 7 out of 12 rounds. That makes you a champion. There is nothing flashy. There is nothing flamboyant about him. He can do different haircuts and do whatever he wants. You just have to have that to come out with that swagger or not. Some guys got it. Some guys don’t. He don’t have it! He can fight! He’s technically sound! I said Pascal is the most dangerous, because he closes his eyes and he swings for the fence every time. So there is always a chance he can land something, and if a 12 year old kid hits you the way Pascal is swinging he can buzz you. If a 12 year old kid closes his eyes and swings with all of his might, he will sting you with the shot. That’s why Pascal is the most dangerous, and the most aggressive was Tavoris Cloud. So this is what the young guys bring to the table.
Now for the veterans it’s time to turn it back. That’s the job. The question before us is can we turn these young talents back? When Bernard was a young monster there was nobody that could turn him back. When Shane was a young monster, the veterans couldn’t turn him back. So now they have to learn from that and see if they can turn these kids back for a second. We know the clock don’t stop ticking for nobody. So I don’t care how great you are. You know Muhammad Ali isn’t going to get in there right now and outbox Klitschko. The clock doesn’t start ticking for nobody. We understand that, but you can turn back some of these young boys for a second or two. If they don’t have the athleticism to supersede the veteran’s experience, then they put them on pause. They’re young. They can bounce back. Saul Alvarez can always come back. Chad Dawson is a young man. He can still come back. Bernard and Shane are not going to be there forever, but for right now it’s our job to hold that minute hand on that clock and say wait a minute! Give me one second. So then we’re going to put the stop watch on them and keep it moving.”
His views on the fact that whenever someone has doubted Bernard Hopkins he seems to rise to the occasion:
“Well like I said they’re going to doubt him. Now my thing was Chad made a statement that kind of threw me off balance. Chad said, ‘Bernard was scared of me’. Now no disrespect to Chad, because like I said I’ve known him since he was a child. No disrespect, but ‘afraid of you’? Yo! I had a stroke and I’m an old man and I ain’t afraid of you! If Chad swung on me, I’d swing back! If Klitschko swung on me, I’d go look for a gun! But if Chad swung on me, I’d swing back. Chad don’t have a highlight that makes you afraid of him. Tyson had highlights that would make you say, ‘I’m not even going to get in the ring with this dude!’ He had highlights that make you afraid of him. Chad don’t have no highlights that make you afraid of him. When they’re doing his highlight reels now, you can see them digging for things to try and show how serious he is. He knows how to win 7 rounds out of 12. Now Floyd and a few other of these boys, they know how to win 12 rounds out of 12. You’ve seen Bernard with Trinidad win 12 rounds out of 12. Chad knows how to win 7 rounds out of 12. You have never seen him fight and win every single round. He doesn’t have that in him. Jermain Taylor never lost a round until he fought Bernard Hopkins. This is the difference in some athletes. You said it. They’re going to count him out. They’re going to count Bernard out. I told Bernard these are your fans! The ones who are counting you out are doing more for your career than the ones who are supporting you. The ones who are counting you out are the ones who motivate you.
Bernard has upset the pot so many times, he has turned back the naysayers so many times, that naysayers don’t even look bad any more when he turns them back. The public doesn’t even come on them and say look, we told ya’ll so. You can’t even go back in the gym and tease the guy and say, ‘See I told you what Bernard was going to do!’ It’s so secondary that you’re like yeah, Bernard did it again. As we look in the future we’re going to say, ‘Remember back in the day when Bernard Hopkins used to keep pushing back those young boys’. It’s how we used to say Ray Leonard used to keep coming out of retirement. But this weekend we deliver it, so we get to enjoy it! We get to enjoy it up close and personal.”
***
by Geoffrey Ciani (Exclusive Interview by Jenna J & Geoffrey Ciani) - This week’s edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio featured an exclusive interview with world class trainer Brother Nazim Richardson, who is preparing WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (52-5-2, 32 KOs) for his rematch with Chad Dawson (30-1, 17 KOs) this Saturday night. In addition, Nazim is also preparing Sugar Shane Mosley (46-7-1, 39 KOs) for a May 5 clash against WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (39-0-1, 29 KOs). Richardson spoke about the upcoming fights for Hopkins and Mosley, and also shared his views on Andre Ward as well as the upcoming that feature Floyd Mayweather Junior squaring off against Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao taking on Timothy Bradley. Here is what Richardson had to say:
Regarding Bernard Hopkins’ training and preparations for his rematch against Chad Dawson:
“Bernard’s a veteran, and as I told him not too long, a day or two ago I told him now he is a complete fighter. You hear people say this guy’s a complete fighter, that guy’s a complete fighter. Bernard now is a complete fighter because the one aspect he didn’t have it one time is he never knew when to rest. He never knew when to take a break. Now finally he’ll do that at times. He listens to his body and he’ll know when to take that break. So you know camp is different for us. Guys go into camp and say we have to have a great camp. Bernard lives the lifestyle of a fighter. So it’s not about camp. It’s just about him focusing on the task.”
His views on the first fight between Hopkins and Dawson:
“Yeah it was a disappointing outcome for all parties involved. You know people read into it and they start speculating, and you know something? That really kind of baffles me! I mean I’d understand that if we were talking about some of the newer kids, if we were talking a Danny Garcia, if we were talking about some of these new guys like Adrien Broner, because we’re still learning about these guys! But with a guy like Bernard, I don’t get it when people fall apart and say, ‘Hey you know, Chad looked strong early!’ And I ask them, ‘How many fights have we been in with Bernard Hopkins where the guy looks strong early?’ The one fight where the guy didn’t look strong early Bernard lost to Calzaghe! That was the one fight that Bernard put him on the canvas in the first round and he wound up losing that fight. You know with the Chad Dawson debacle in the first fight, like you always hear me tell Bernard, it’s nothing we haven’t seen. We’ve been here before. Robert Allen threw us out of the ring. The ankle was messed up. We had the rematch. You know it’s nothing we haven’t seen. You will hear other fighters say it, but with Bernard Hopkins it is actually true. The only thing Bernard Hopkins hasn’t seen is ‘Fan Man’ come down in the middle of his ring!”
On why he feels so many observers are being so critical of Bernard after less than two rounds of action in his first fight with Dawson:
“Because the odds are with you when you’re dealing with an older fighter. There’s always a good chance you can be right. What most people all do is when they go to fights and see fights they want to be able to tell you, ‘I told you so’. So if you notice some people could be wrong 500 time, then it’s 501 and they say, ‘See, told you so!’ You know what I mean. So guys will improve their odds if they keep saying the old guy is going to lose, the old guy is going to lose, because we feel like eventually the old guy will lose! So if I keep saying it there’s a good chance I can be right. So any inkling of showing you that will make everybody jump on that bandwagon so they can come to the gym Monday morning and say, ‘This was the kid! Didn’t I tell you?’ And they’ll keep searching for him. Think about it! You look at the first two rounds with Chad Dawson, or you look at the first two rounds of Jean Pascal in his first fight with Bernard, and who looked better? In the first couple of rounds with Jean Pascal he had Bernard on the canvas like two times! Keep counting them old dudes out, man. Pacquiao came out and put Marquez down three times in the first round, and that old timer got up and won every round after that.”
On whether he believes Bernard’s mindset is different going into the rematch because of what happened in the first fight:
“You don’t even include what happened in the first fight, because there was no first fight. It was a couple of rounds. It would be like you went into the mindset of this fight with the first couple of rounds of sparring last week. You can’t emphasize what you did in the first couple of rounds of sparring last week. You have to look at it and encompass it as a whole, and look at the entire situation. Chad Dawson is a big, young, strong kid. Who hasn’t been a big, young, strong kid in front of this old-timer. See if you put some of these veterans in here with Bernard they would be big, young, strong kids compared to what Bernard is now. So we got all that. That pressure is on that young bull. See when we talk about these younger guys and they want to say I’m bigger, I’m younger, I’m stronger, I’m faster. Okay!
The minute I hear that come out of your mouth—that you’re bigger, you’re younger, you’re stronger, and you’re faster—the minute that comes out of your mouth then you better do a Mike Tyson, because Mike Tyson proved he was bigger, younger, stronger, and faster, and he ran them old dudes out of this game! He didn’t come in and pitty-pat for twelve rounds, chess match, this, that, and the other thing. There was no crying and complaining because they thought they won that round or any of that. He came out and showed I’m bigger, I’m younger, I’m stronger, and I’m faster. There was no reason for anyone to doubt him! The judges could have stayed in the hotel when Tyson came out, because if you’re bigger, younger, stronger, and faster—we got the only sport that if you are really bigger, younger, and stronger, and that far in front—we got the only sport where, it’s over! See it doesn’t matter how many points that the 76ers go up against the Orlando Magic. They’re going to play all four quarters! We have the only sport where if you’re that much better on that night, we’re stopping it! It’s over!”
On whether he believes Bernard learned more about Chad than Dawson learned about Hopkins during the round-plus that they fought:
“That was going to happen regardless. The reason why that was going to happen regardless, I took Chad away to the under-19 tournament when he was a kid. When Chad was a kid he used to ask me questions about Bernard Hopkins. When Andre Ward was a kid he used to bug me to death about Bernard Hopkins. So these kids have been watching these guys forever. They grew up on these guys, so of course they knew more about them. Chad didn’t come on Bernard’s radar until pretty much when Bernard went to fight Pascal. Chad didn’t show up on Bernard’s radar until then, so of course he was going to learn more about him in the fight in the few seconds they had been together.”
On whether the upcoming fight between Shane Mosley and Saul Alvarez reminds him at all of the atmosphere before Shane’s fight with Antonio Margarito when everyone was counting Mosley out then the way they are now:
“And the bottom line, I even see it in Shane in his preparations, and his health, and in his response. I see a lot of similarities to the Margarito fight. You know what I mean, and people don’t remember something I said a long time ago before the Margarito fight. I said, ‘Listen, I don’t know if Shane’s going to respond like this all the time or if he’s just showing off because he’s trying to impress me because it’s my first time working with him. But whatever it is I’m going to take advantage of it’, and that’s the way I felt about it this time, too. I mean if you show me you want it I’m going to jump on top of it and try and help you get it. But Saul Alvarez is a special young athlete. He’s difficult to prepare for because he’s up and coming. So we don’t know if Saul Alvarez has a chin. We don’t know if he can take a great body shot. We don’t know these things because we’ve yet to see him do these against any athlete of extreme quality at this level or veteran experience at this level. Baldomir was an older fighter but he wasn’t a veteran.”
His evaluation of Saul Alvarez’s latest performance in his victory against Kermit Cintron:
“It’s like I told you. I can’t put a lot of credence into what Saul Alvarez has done in many of these fights, because his advantages have been so vast. There is not a fight he goes into that I’ve seen where all of the advantages weigh on his side. You can’t really prepare based on that. We have to look at the fact that this time he doesn’t have the experience that our guy has. He hasn’t been in the limelight. He hasn’t been in this level of fight where he has never looked across the ring and seen a name this big in front of him. So know we’ll find out some things. What we have to do is prepare to make sure. I equated to Shane like this. I said, ‘We didn’t know that Trinidad got up off the canvas and fought like a monster until Yori Boy Campas got him, and then we found out! And many people found out after that, but that’s when we first found out that Trinidad gets up off the canvas and can still annihilate! So we got to prepare for any surprises like that with Canelo. He might have a chin of iron, but we don’t know that yet because we haven’t really seen him been tested right.”
On whether he still feels we have not yet seen the best of Andre Ward, in reference to previous claims he made “On the Ropes” when the Super Six was just underway:
“Yeah and I told Ward when he saw me, he said, ‘Brother Nazim, you know me well!’ I said, ‘Listen brother, I still know there’s an aspect of your game that boxing hasn’t even seen, and they’ll be surprised when they see it’. The kid is special. I mean with the Super Six, I told people at the beginning of the tournament when they asked me who was going to win it. I said, ‘Actually Andre Ward and Andre Dirrell will probably be in the Finals’. But I knew they wouldn’t fight each other. I picked both of them to be in the Finals and I told ya’ll that a long time ago. When it came to Andre Ward everybody was counting him out against the Viking, against Kessler who I like. I told them Kessler did better in that fight than I thought he would do. Kessler did better against Andre Ward than I thought he would do. Allan Green did better in the fight than I thought he would do. Andre Ward is the truth, man!”
On whether he believes Andre Ward is a future Pound-for-Pound King in boxing:
“A guy once posed a question to me, a buddy of mine actually in the gym. He said, ‘If you had to pick out of these young kids a future Hall of Famer, how would you do it?’ I said, ‘You can’t pick out a Hall of Famer. You can guesstimate a champion. You can take a good guess on a kid who may do some things, or win a title, or do well, or things like that. But if you saw early Bernard Hopkins you wouldn’t have said Hall of Famer. You know what I mean. If you saw early Larry Holmes, I have some early tapes on Larry Holmes, you would have never said Hall of Famer’. So you can’t guarantee someone will be a Hall of Famer, but if a gun was put to my head the only athlete I would say that about would be Andre Ward. He’s the only kid.
Pound-for-Pound? Did you say future Pound-for-Pound? Oh! You said ‘King’, because I was going to say he should be considered Pound-for-Pound now! You know once you can make the Pound-for-Pound list, you know there’s a chance you can rise to the top of it. Like I told him, as much as I respect that little Floyd Mayweather, and I’ve known him since he was a kid and I respect that young boy. He said one time to me, ‘I’m the best undefeated fighter! The only champion that’s undefeated’, and blah, blah, blah, and I was like he must not know who Andre Ward is!
The reason why I pick Andre Ward to be a Pound-for-Pound and even a Hall of Famer, is because the one thing I don’t really worry about with Ward is I’m comfortable with Ward’s demeanor outside the ring. See I’m comfortable with Ward when it comes to that, and that’s where a lot of these superstar young boys that are coming up scare me! Like I said, think about it! If you look at a kid can you imagine your child becoming a multi-millionaire and then you still have to see him go to jail? When your kids become millionaires you figure we cool! You figure as a parent your done! I got him past, college is paid for, and he’s got enough left to send the grandkids to college. We good! Then you got to go to jail. There are jokers down the street in the projects in north Philadelphia whose parents are sitting there preparing for their children to go to jail. So this is where I get comfortable with a guy like Andre Ward. His demeanor and knowing his character, having me him, his trainer, knowing his father before his father passed, his kids, his wife, you know what I mean. He’s a solid kid! We pray nothing stupid happens because we are all one bad decision away from doing jail time, so I don’t point my fingers at anybody. Anybody can be in a bar and scuttlebutt where something stupid goes dumb, and there’s nothing worse than when something stupid goes dumb.”
His views on the Floyd Mayweather Junior versus Miguel Cotto bout and whether he sees it as a one-sided mismatch in favor of Floyd:
“Well you can’t just lock in on one-sided, because last time Floyd has been at this weight was probably his toughest contest when he fought Oscar. Cotto’s a kid who has pretty much reenergized himself. You know he felt like he went back and redeemed himself from the Margarito fight, and Cotto’s a special kid, too. So one-sided? I never count on that against champions, against guys who are true champions. You don’t see one-sided. As far out as Floyd is talent-wise, and I told people this years ago because we dealt with it with Roy Jones. When Roy Jones came along and Trinidad was coming along I told people. I told Bernard! Me and Bernard had words about this. I said, ‘You want to be the best fighter in boxing? You got to beat Trinidad. Pound-for-Pound Roy Jones is the most talented fighter in boxing. Pound-for-Pound God gave him the most gifts’. So he’s the most talented fighter in boxing. It’s like saying yes Yao Ming is the tallest guy on the team. That’s just a gift! Nobody else could be that tall if they wanted to. So Pound-for-Pound Roy was the most talented, but I said, ‘Pound-for-Pound Trinidad is the best fighter’.
Once again in this era we go through it again. Pound-for-Pound Floyd is the most talented, but Pound-for-Pound Pacquiao is the best fighter in boxing! This is why everybody calls for that and they keep looking for it. Me myself, I never pursued a girl for that long so nothing holds my interest for that long. Maybe I got attention deficit syndrome, but I ain’t never been interested in something that long except for wanting to see my grandkids to go to school. Me waiting this long to see these two guys fight there is nothing they can do to satisfy me now. For them to satisfy me in a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, then it’s got to be better than Hagler and Hearns. It’s got to be better than Hagler and Hearns. Now anybody in boxing, you say that and they’ll understand what I’m saying. If it ain’t better than Hagler-Hearns it’s a letdown to me. I got to wait six years to see two dudes fight and I get a chess match? You can keep that! I ain’t even interested anymore.”
His views on who has the tougher challenge: Manny Pacquiao in his fight against Timothy Bradley or Floyd Mayweather Junior in his fight with Miguel Cotto:
“It’s down the line. I’ve known Timmy since he was a kid, too. The beautiful thing about Timmy is that nothing you see on tape or DVD shows you Timmy Bradley. If you watch Timmy throw a left hook or a right hand on DVD you’re really not all that impressed. But how does this guy keep winning? That’s what I’m saying. Some people have mastered the art of winning. I once said that about Ward. I said Ward is the Tim Duncan of boxing. He does nothing exceptionally special, but he wins all the time. There will be no championships unless you go through him. So Tim Bradley is very much like that in the sense that you can watch him on DVD, and you can see well I can counter his hook, and I can counter his right hand, and I can do this, and I can do that. So that’s where Tim is tough. Tim is very tough in that sense, but we know if Pacquiao cracks you and hits you with that ooh-wee, and you see it time and time again when guys’ eyes get back and they say ooh-wee!”
His views on what Hopkins can do that will cause Dawson the most problems inside the ring:
“The same thing that would have caused him problems in the first had it went on—you’re dealing with a veteran! I told people two things happen every time you step in the ring competitively, every single time! I don’t care if it’s sparring. Whenever you step in the ring competitively one of two things will happen. You either take punishment or you take experience. Bernard is one of the few fighters in my life that I watched in the gym, out of the gym, on television, anywhere. Every time he steps in the ring he takes experience. He’s the one fighter I’ve never seen let the sparring partners get the better of him, and not because he was just so much more talented. Like I mean Mayweather is just better than all of his sparring partners! So I’m sure he’s probably the same way, but it’s not because Bernard was better than all of them. There are so many young guys that are actually more physically gifted than Bernard! But he will never let you have an edge regardless, and this is what makes him a special fighter—he’s creativity and still with his maturation and when I watch I tell people all the time.
We talk about a guy getting old. When I was a young man I used to go out and get the bags for the groceries. I’d carry all of them! I was so strong, and I was a freakish strong young boy. I’d carry all the bags. My family would say, ‘Why don’t you take another trip?’ ‘I got it!’, and I got all the bags. As I got a little older I’d take one or two trips. Now when I see the groceries coming in I call my sons, because I still want to get the groceries in the house but as I’ve gotten older I’ve found a smarter way and an easier way for me to still get the job done, and that’s what Bernard Hopkins has done in boxing. When he was a young boy he used to just bulldoze you and hit you with the right hand. As he’s gotten older he learned to maneuver and put you in position for the right hand. As he’s even gotten older now he’s learned to manipulate you and make you give him the shot for the right hand. We got older fighters than we got experienced fighters. Every older fighter is not an experienced fighter. That’s why I told you with Baldomir who I have a great deal of respect for, for things he’s done and things he’s accomplished, Baldomir was an older fighter but he wasn’t a veteran. He wasn’t an experienced fighter like that.”
On whether he believes Chad Dawson’s biggest advantage going into the rematch is his youth:
“It’s the same advantages that I told ya’ll that Pascal had. He’s young, he’s big, he’s strong, he’s determined—these are his advantages. Then being a southpaw would be an advantage for most people, but Bernard has handled so many southpaws. That’s kind of what’s going to trick Chad Dawson up a little bit too in a sense, because Bernard has dealt with southpaws. When you get in there and you see a guy who’s really dealt with southpaws, I mean really can do it! Every fighter says I’m a fighter, I’m a boxer-puncher, southpaws don’t bother me—you know everybody says that, and then they get in there and we watch them and we see something different. Bernard is really truthful. There is nothing you can show him in the sport except for Fan Man, unless Chad is a big enough puncher to just knock him dead. We’ve never seen that either.”
His prediction on what critics and fans will be saying about the Hopkins-Dawson rematch when all is said and done:
“Let me just tell you something that I want to clarify. Bernard’s going to be mad at me because I’m giving it to the media, because he didn’t want to give it to the media. But I will. The reason why Bernard wouldn’t do stare downs and why he didn’t want to do the stare downs from the first press conference is because Bernard, and I’m an advocate of it, too! I’m so sick of hearing about how Bernard got in this person’s head, how Bernard got in that person’s head, if he blinks his eye, did you see the way Bernard blinked his eye? Oh he’s a cagey veteran! He blinked his eye and got in the kid’s head! Oh did you see the way he tipped his hat? That made Chad mad at the weigh-in! All of this Bernard got in his head, and nobody says Bernard can fight! He always got in somebody’s head. He plays head games! Well if he can play head games why doesn’t he just sit on the couch, call the head game in, and just relax and get his check? I mean it’s ridiculous, and when he beats one of these guys he got in his head! That’s why he didn’t want to do the stare downs or nothing. You can’t say he looked in his eyes in he did that, he said something at the press conference and that did that to him. There will be none of that! It will have to show that Bernard can fight and he is still willing to train and sacrifice his body and his time away from his family to make the commitment to deal with these young guys, while these young guys are out buying Bentleys and being rock stars.
They’re going to say Bernard got in Chad’s head! ‘Chad was doing good and then when Bernard landed that one body shot he mentally did this to Chad’. Or ‘Bernard stepped around and he started mentally looking in Chad’s eyes!’ That’s how I answer the question. It’s going to be the same old, same old! Bernard got in his head! Somehow Bernard manipulated him and got in his head. It’s the same old thing! Like I said, it’s boxing. It’s boxing. People got to write something. What are you going to do? Not do your job? Somebody has got to write something! When you got a guy who’s been around as many years as Bernard what are you going to write that hasn’t been written? If you want to go back to his prison stint, this, that, or the other thing, what can you write that hasn’t been written? You got to write something!
But like I said and I told people, Chad with these young guys, and I said it a long time ago in the light heavyweight division. I said Chad is the most technically sound. Me and Bernard argued about that. He disagrees. I said Chad was the most technically sound of the young guys. Chad has never been a superstar. They tried to make him one, they do interviews, they want to make him a superstar because boxing needs superstars to go forward! The Oscars and all of these guys have retired. So they need future stars. So they pushed. So people want to see the next guy! We want to see the next thing that we can follow for a long time, because we love the sport! So they tried to make him a superstar, but he’s not! He’s a champion. He’s a guy who knows how to win 7 out of 12 rounds. That makes you a champion. There is nothing flashy. There is nothing flamboyant about him. He can do different haircuts and do whatever he wants. You just have to have that to come out with that swagger or not. Some guys got it. Some guys don’t. He don’t have it! He can fight! He’s technically sound! I said Pascal is the most dangerous, because he closes his eyes and he swings for the fence every time. So there is always a chance he can land something, and if a 12 year old kid hits you the way Pascal is swinging he can buzz you. If a 12 year old kid closes his eyes and swings with all of his might, he will sting you with the shot. That’s why Pascal is the most dangerous, and the most aggressive was Tavoris Cloud. So this is what the young guys bring to the table.
Now for the veterans it’s time to turn it back. That’s the job. The question before us is can we turn these young talents back? When Bernard was a young monster there was nobody that could turn him back. When Shane was a young monster, the veterans couldn’t turn him back. So now they have to learn from that and see if they can turn these kids back for a second. We know the clock don’t stop ticking for nobody. So I don’t care how great you are. You know Muhammad Ali isn’t going to get in there right now and outbox Klitschko. The clock doesn’t start ticking for nobody. We understand that, but you can turn back some of these young boys for a second or two. If they don’t have the athleticism to supersede the veteran’s experience, then they put them on pause. They’re young. They can bounce back. Saul Alvarez can always come back. Chad Dawson is a young man. He can still come back. Bernard and Shane are not going to be there forever, but for right now it’s our job to hold that minute hand on that clock and say wait a minute! Give me one second. So then we’re going to put the stop watch on them and keep it moving.”
His views on the fact that whenever someone has doubted Bernard Hopkins he seems to rise to the occasion:
“Well like I said they’re going to doubt him. Now my thing was Chad made a statement that kind of threw me off balance. Chad said, ‘Bernard was scared of me’. Now no disrespect to Chad, because like I said I’ve known him since he was a child. No disrespect, but ‘afraid of you’? Yo! I had a stroke and I’m an old man and I ain’t afraid of you! If Chad swung on me, I’d swing back! If Klitschko swung on me, I’d go look for a gun! But if Chad swung on me, I’d swing back. Chad don’t have a highlight that makes you afraid of him. Tyson had highlights that would make you say, ‘I’m not even going to get in the ring with this dude!’ He had highlights that make you afraid of him. Chad don’t have no highlights that make you afraid of him. When they’re doing his highlight reels now, you can see them digging for things to try and show how serious he is. He knows how to win 7 rounds out of 12. Now Floyd and a few other of these boys, they know how to win 12 rounds out of 12. You’ve seen Bernard with Trinidad win 12 rounds out of 12. Chad knows how to win 7 rounds out of 12. You have never seen him fight and win every single round. He doesn’t have that in him. Jermain Taylor never lost a round until he fought Bernard Hopkins. This is the difference in some athletes. You said it. They’re going to count him out. They’re going to count Bernard out. I told Bernard these are your fans! The ones who are counting you out are doing more for your career than the ones who are supporting you. The ones who are counting you out are the ones who motivate you.
Bernard has upset the pot so many times, he has turned back the naysayers so many times, that naysayers don’t even look bad any more when he turns them back. The public doesn’t even come on them and say look, we told ya’ll so. You can’t even go back in the gym and tease the guy and say, ‘See I told you what Bernard was going to do!’ It’s so secondary that you’re like yeah, Bernard did it again. As we look in the future we’re going to say, ‘Remember back in the day when Bernard Hopkins used to keep pushing back those young boys’. It’s how we used to say Ray Leonard used to keep coming out of retirement. But this weekend we deliver it, so we get to enjoy it! We get to enjoy it up close and personal.”
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Nazim Richardson: “Think about it! You look at the first two rounds with Chad Dawson, or you look at the first two rounds of Jean Pascal in his first fight with Bernard, and who looked better?"
by Geoffrey Ciani (Exclusive Interview by Jenna J & Geoffrey Ciani) - This week’s edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio featured an exclusive interview with world class trainer Brother Nazim Richardson, who is preparing WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (52-5-2, 32 KOs) for his rematch with Chad Dawson (30-1, 17 KOs) this Saturday night. In addition, Nazim is also preparing Sugar Shane Mosley (46-7-1, 39 KOs) for a May 5 clash against WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (39-0-1, 29 KOs). Richardson spoke about the upcoming fights for Hopkins and Mosley, and also shared his views on Andre Ward as well as the upcoming that feature Floyd Mayweather Junior squaring off against Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao taking on Timothy Bradley. Here is what Richardson had to say:
Regarding Bernard Hopkins’ training and preparations for his rematch against Chad Dawson:
“Bernard’s a veteran, and as I told him not too long, a day or two ago I told him now he is a complete fighter. You hear people say this guy’s a complete fighter, that guy’s a complete fighter. Bernard now is a complete fighter because the one aspect he didn’t have it one time is he never knew when to rest. He never knew when to take a break. Now finally he’ll do that at times. He listens to his body and he’ll know when to take that break. So you know camp is different for us. Guys go into camp and say we have to have a great camp. Bernard lives the lifestyle of a fighter. So it’s not about camp. It’s just about him focusing on the task.”
His views on the first fight between Hopkins and Dawson:
“Yeah it was a disappointing outcome for all parties involved. You know people read into it and they start speculating, and you know something? That really kind of baffles me! I mean I’d understand that if we were talking about some of the newer kids, if we were talking a Danny Garcia, if we were talking about some of these new guys like Adrien Broner, because we’re still learning about these guys! But with a guy like Bernard, I don’t get it when people fall apart and say, ‘Hey you know, Chad looked strong early!’ And I ask them, ‘How many fights have we been in with Bernard Hopkins where the guy looks strong early?’ The one fight where the guy didn’t look strong early Bernard lost to Calzaghe! That was the one fight that Bernard put him on the canvas in the first round and he wound up losing that fight. You know with the Chad Dawson debacle in the first fight, like you always hear me tell Bernard, it’s nothing we haven’t seen. We’ve been here before. Robert Allen threw us out of the ring. The ankle was messed up. We had the rematch. You know it’s nothing we haven’t seen. You will hear other fighters say it, but with Bernard Hopkins it is actually true. The only thing Bernard Hopkins hasn’t seen is ‘Fan Man’ come down in the middle of his ring!”
On why he feels so many observers are being so critical of Bernard after less than two rounds of action in his first fight with Dawson:
“Because the odds are with you when you’re dealing with an older fighter. There’s always a good chance you can be right. What most people all do is when they go to fights and see fights they want to be able to tell you, ‘I told you so’. So if you notice some people could be wrong 500 time, then it’s 501 and they say, ‘See, told you so!’ You know what I mean. So guys will improve their odds if they keep saying the old guy is going to lose, the old guy is going to lose, because we feel like eventually the old guy will lose! So if I keep saying it there’s a good chance I can be right. So any inkling of showing you that will make everybody jump on that bandwagon so they can come to the gym Monday morning and say, ‘This was the kid! Didn’t I tell you?’ And they’ll keep searching for him. Think about it! You look at the first two rounds with Chad Dawson, or you look at the first two rounds of Jean Pascal in his first fight with Bernard, and who looked better? In the first couple of rounds with Jean Pascal he had Bernard on the canvas like two times! Keep counting them old dudes out, man. Pacquiao came out and put Marquez down three times in the first round, and that old timer got up and won every round after that.”
On whether he believes Bernard’s mindset is different going into the rematch because of what happened in the first fight:
“You don’t even include what happened in the first fight, because there was no first fight. It was a couple of rounds. It would be like you went into the mindset of this fight with the first couple of rounds of sparring last week. You can’t emphasize what you did in the first couple of rounds of sparring last week. You have to look at it and encompass it as a whole, and look at the entire situation. Chad Dawson is a big, young, strong kid. Who hasn’t been a big, young, strong kid in front of this old-timer. See if you put some of these veterans in here with Bernard they would be big, young, strong kids compared to what Bernard is now. So we got all that. That pressure is on that young bull. See when we talk about these younger guys and they want to say I’m bigger, I’m younger, I’m stronger, I’m faster. Okay!
The minute I hear that come out of your mouth—that you’re bigger, you’re younger, you’re stronger, and you’re faster—the minute that comes out of your mouth then you better do a Mike Tyson, because Mike Tyson proved he was bigger, younger, stronger, and faster, and he ran them old dudes out of this game! He didn’t come in and pitty-pat for twelve rounds, chess match, this, that, and the other thing. There was no crying and complaining because they thought they won that round or any of that. He came out and showed I’m bigger, I’m younger, I’m stronger, and I’m faster. There was no reason for anyone to doubt him! The judges could have stayed in the hotel when Tyson came out, because if you’re bigger, younger, stronger, and faster—we got the only sport that if you are really bigger, younger, and stronger, and that far in front—we got the only sport where, it’s over! See it doesn’t matter how many points that the 76ers go up against the Orlando Magic. They’re going to play all four quarters! We have the only sport where if you’re that much better on that night, we’re stopping it! It’s over!”
On whether he believes Bernard learned more about Chad than Dawson learned about Hopkins during the round-plus that they fought:
“That was going to happen regardless. The reason why that was going to happen regardless, I took Chad away to the under-19 tournament when he was a kid. When Chad was a kid he used to ask me questions about Bernard Hopkins. When Andre Ward was a kid he used to bug me to death about Bernard Hopkins. So these kids have been watching these guys forever. They grew up on these guys, so of course they knew more about them. Chad didn’t come on Bernard’s radar until pretty much when Bernard went to fight Pascal. Chad didn’t show up on Bernard’s radar until then, so of course he was going to learn more about him in the fight in the few seconds they had been together.”
On whether the upcoming fight between Shane Mosley and Saul Alvarez reminds him at all of the atmosphere before Shane’s fight with Antonio Margarito when everyone was counting Mosley out then the way they are now:
“And the bottom line, I even see it in Shane in his preparations, and his health, and in his response. I see a lot of similarities to the Margarito fight. You know what I mean, and people don’t remember something I said a long time ago before the Margarito fight. I said, ‘Listen, I don’t know if Shane’s going to respond like this all the time or if he’s just showing off because he’s trying to impress me because it’s my first time working with him. But whatever it is I’m going to take advantage of it’, and that’s the way I felt about it this time, too. I mean if you show me you want it I’m going to jump on top of it and try and help you get it. But Saul Alvarez is a special young athlete. He’s difficult to prepare for because he’s up and coming. So we don’t know if Saul Alvarez has a chin. We don’t know if he can take a great body shot. We don’t know these things because we’ve yet to see him do these against any athlete of extreme quality at this level or veteran experience at this level. Baldomir was an older fighter but he wasn’t a veteran.”
His evaluation of Saul Alvarez’s latest performance in his victory against Kermit Cintron:
“It’s like I told you. I can’t put a lot of credence into what Saul Alvarez has done in many of these fights, because his advantages have been so vast. There is not a fight he goes into that I’ve seen where all of the advantages weigh on his side. You can’t really prepare based on that. We have to look at the fact that this time he doesn’t have the experience that our guy has. He hasn’t been in the limelight. He hasn’t been in this level of fight where he has never looked across the ring and seen a name this big in front of him. So know we’ll find out some things. What we have to do is prepare to make sure. I equated to Shane like this. I said, ‘We didn’t know that Trinidad got up off the canvas and fought like a monster until Yori Boy Campas got him, and then we found out! And many people found out after that, but that’s when we first found out that Trinidad gets up off the canvas and can still annihilate! So we got to prepare for any surprises like that with Canelo. He might have a chin of iron, but we don’t know that yet because we haven’t really seen him been tested right.”
On whether he still feels we have not yet seen the best of Andre Ward, in reference to previous claims he made “On the Ropes” when the Super Six was just underway:
“Yeah and I told Ward when he saw me, he said, ‘Brother Nazim, you know me well!’ I said, ‘Listen brother, I still know there’s an aspect of your game that boxing hasn’t even seen, and they’ll be surprised when they see it’. The kid is special. I mean with the Super Six, I told people at the beginning of the tournament when they asked me who was going to win it. I said, ‘Actually Andre Ward and Andre Dirrell will probably be in the Finals’. But I knew they wouldn’t fight each other. I picked both of them to be in the Finals and I told ya’ll that a long time ago. When it came to Andre Ward everybody was counting him out against the Viking, against Kessler who I like. I told them Kessler did better in that fight than I thought he would do. Kessler did better against Andre Ward than I thought he would do. Allan Green did better in the fight than I thought he would do. Andre Ward is the truth, man!”
On whether he believes Andre Ward is a future Pound-for-Pound King in boxing:
“A guy once posed a question to me, a buddy of mine actually in the gym. He said, ‘If you had to pick out of these young kids a future Hall of Famer, how would you do it?’ I said, ‘You can’t pick out a Hall of Famer. You can guesstimate a champion. You can take a good guess on a kid who may do some things, or win a title, or do well, or things like that. But if you saw early Bernard Hopkins you wouldn’t have said Hall of Famer. You know what I mean. If you saw early Larry Holmes, I have some early tapes on Larry Holmes, you would have never said Hall of Famer’. So you can’t guarantee someone will be a Hall of Famer, but if a gun was put to my head the only athlete I would say that about would be Andre Ward. He’s the only kid.
Pound-for-Pound? Did you say future Pound-for-Pound? Oh! You said ‘King’, because I was going to say he should be considered Pound-for-Pound now! You know once you can make the Pound-for-Pound list, you know there’s a chance you can rise to the top of it. Like I told him, as much as I respect that little Floyd Mayweather, and I’ve known him since he was a kid and I respect that young boy. He said one time to me, ‘I’m the best undefeated fighter! The only champion that’s undefeated’, and blah, blah, blah, and I was like he must not know who Andre Ward is!
The reason why I pick Andre Ward to be a Pound-for-Pound and even a Hall of Famer, is because the one thing I don’t really worry about with Ward is I’m comfortable with Ward’s demeanor outside the ring. See I’m comfortable with Ward when it comes to that, and that’s where a lot of these superstar young boys that are coming up scare me! Like I said, think about it! If you look at a kid can you imagine your child becoming a multi-millionaire and then you still have to see him go to jail? When your kids become millionaires you figure we cool! You figure as a parent your done! I got him past, college is paid for, and he’s got enough left to send the grandkids to college. We good! Then you got to go to jail. There are jokers down the street in the projects in north Philadelphia whose parents are sitting there preparing for their children to go to jail. So this is where I get comfortable with a guy like Andre Ward. His demeanor and knowing his character, having me him, his trainer, knowing his father before his father passed, his kids, his wife, you know what I mean. He’s a solid kid! We pray nothing stupid happens because we are all one bad decision away from doing jail time, so I don’t point my fingers at anybody. Anybody can be in a bar and scuttlebutt where something stupid goes dumb, and there’s nothing worse than when something stupid goes dumb.”
His views on the Floyd Mayweather Junior versus Miguel Cotto bout and whether he sees it as a one-sided mismatch in favor of Floyd:
“Well you can’t just lock in on one-sided, because last time Floyd has been at this weight was probably his toughest contest when he fought Oscar. Cotto’s a kid who has pretty much reenergized himself. You know he felt like he went back and redeemed himself from the Margarito fight, and Cotto’s a special kid, too. So one-sided? I never count on that against champions, against guys who are true champions. You don’t see one-sided. As far out as Floyd is talent-wise, and I told people this years ago because we dealt with it with Roy Jones. When Roy Jones came along and Trinidad was coming along I told people. I told Bernard! Me and Bernard had words about this. I said, ‘You want to be the best fighter in boxing? You got to beat Trinidad. Pound-for-Pound Roy Jones is the most talented fighter in boxing. Pound-for-Pound God gave him the most gifts’. So he’s the most talented fighter in boxing. It’s like saying yes Yao Ming is the tallest guy on the team. That’s just a gift! Nobody else could be that tall if they wanted to. So Pound-for-Pound Roy was the most talented, but I said, ‘Pound-for-Pound Trinidad is the best fighter’.
Once again in this era we go through it again. Pound-for-Pound Floyd is the most talented, but Pound-for-Pound Pacquiao is the best fighter in boxing! This is why everybody calls for that and they keep looking for it. Me myself, I never pursued a girl for that long so nothing holds my interest for that long. Maybe I got attention deficit syndrome, but I ain’t never been interested in something that long except for wanting to see my grandkids to go to school. Me waiting this long to see these two guys fight there is nothing they can do to satisfy me now. For them to satisfy me in a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, then it’s got to be better than Hagler and Hearns. It’s got to be better than Hagler and Hearns. Now anybody in boxing, you say that and they’ll understand what I’m saying. If it ain’t better than Hagler-Hearns it’s a letdown to me. I got to wait six years to see two dudes fight and I get a chess match? You can keep that! I ain’t even interested anymore.”
His views on who has the tougher challenge: Manny Pacquiao in his fight against Timothy Bradley or Floyd Mayweather Junior in his fight with Miguel Cotto:
“It’s down the line. I’ve known Timmy since he was a kid, too. The beautiful thing about Timmy is that nothing you see on tape or DVD shows you Timmy Bradley. If you watch Timmy throw a left hook or a right hand on DVD you’re really not all that impressed. But how does this guy keep winning? That’s what I’m saying. Some people have mastered the art of winning. I once said that about Ward. I said Ward is the Tim Duncan of boxing. He does nothing exceptionally special, but he wins all the time. There will be no championships unless you go through him. So Tim Bradley is very much like that in the sense that you can watch him on DVD, and you can see well I can counter his hook, and I can counter his right hand, and I can do this, and I can do that. So that’s where Tim is tough. Tim is very tough in that sense, but we know if Pacquiao cracks you and hits you with that ooh-wee, and you see it time and time again when guys’ eyes get back and they say ooh-wee!”
His views on what Hopkins can do that will cause Dawson the most problems inside the ring:
“The same thing that would have caused him problems in the first had it went on—you’re dealing with a veteran! I told people two things happen every time you step in the ring competitively, every single time! I don’t care if it’s sparring. Whenever you step in the ring competitively one of two things will happen. You either take punishment or you take experience. Bernard is one of the few fighters in my life that I watched in the gym, out of the gym, on television, anywhere. Every time he steps in the ring he takes experience. He’s the one fighter I’ve never seen let the sparring partners get the better of him, and not because he was just so much more talented. Like I mean Mayweather is just better than all of his sparring partners! So I’m sure he’s probably the same way, but it’s not because Bernard was better than all of them. There are so many young guys that are actually more physically gifted than Bernard! But he will never let you have an edge regardless, and this is what makes him a special fighter—he’s creativity and still with his maturation and when I watch I tell people all the time.
We talk about a guy getting old. When I was a young man I used to go out and get the bags for the groceries. I’d carry all of them! I was so strong, and I was a freakish strong young boy. I’d carry all the bags. My family would say, ‘Why don’t you take another trip?’ ‘I got it!’, and I got all the bags. As I got a little older I’d take one or two trips. Now when I see the groceries coming in I call my sons, because I still want to get the groceries in the house but as I’ve gotten older I’ve found a smarter way and an easier way for me to still get the job done, and that’s what Bernard Hopkins has done in boxing. When he was a young boy he used to just bulldoze you and hit you with the right hand. As he’s gotten older he learned to maneuver and put you in position for the right hand. As he’s even gotten older now he’s learned to manipulate you and make you give him the shot for the right hand. We got older fighters than we got experienced fighters. Every older fighter is not an experienced fighter. That’s why I told you with Baldomir who I have a great deal of respect for, for things he’s done and things he’s accomplished, Baldomir was an older fighter but he wasn’t a veteran. He wasn’t an experienced fighter like that.”
On whether he believes Chad Dawson’s biggest advantage going into the rematch is his youth:
“It’s the same advantages that I told ya’ll that Pascal had. He’s young, he’s big, he’s strong, he’s determined—these are his advantages. Then being a southpaw would be an advantage for most people, but Bernard has handled so many southpaws. That’s kind of what’s going to trick Chad Dawson up a little bit too in a sense, because Bernard has dealt with southpaws. When you get in there and you see a guy who’s really dealt with southpaws, I mean really can do it! Every fighter says I’m a fighter, I’m a boxer-puncher, southpaws don’t bother me—you know everybody says that, and then they get in there and we watch them and we see something different. Bernard is really truthful. There is nothing you can show him in the sport except for Fan Man, unless Chad is a big enough puncher to just knock him dead. We’ve never seen that either.”
His prediction on what critics and fans will be saying about the Hopkins-Dawson rematch when all is said and done:
“Let me just tell you something that I want to clarify. Bernard’s going to be mad at me because I’m giving it to the media, because he didn’t want to give it to the media. But I will. The reason why Bernard wouldn’t do stare downs and why he didn’t want to do the stare downs from the first press conference is because Bernard, and I’m an advocate of it, too! I’m so sick of hearing about how Bernard got in this person’s head, how Bernard got in that person’s head, if he blinks his eye, did you see the way Bernard blinked his eye? Oh he’s a cagey veteran! He blinked his eye and got in the kid’s head! Oh did you see the way he tipped his hat? That made Chad mad at the weigh-in! All of this Bernard got in his head, and nobody says Bernard can fight! He always got in somebody’s head. He plays head games! Well if he can play head games why doesn’t he just sit on the couch, call the head game in, and just relax and get his check? I mean it’s ridiculous, and when he beats one of these guys he got in his head! That’s why he didn’t want to do the stare downs or nothing. You can’t say he looked in his eyes in he did that, he said something at the press conference and that did that to him. There will be none of that! It will have to show that Bernard can fight and he is still willing to train and sacrifice his body and his time away from his family to make the commitment to deal with these young guys, while these young guys are out buying Bentleys and being rock stars.
They’re going to say Bernard got in Chad’s head! ‘Chad was doing good and then when Bernard landed that one body shot he mentally did this to Chad’. Or ‘Bernard stepped around and he started mentally looking in Chad’s eyes!’ That’s how I answer the question. It’s going to be the same old, same old! Bernard got in his head! Somehow Bernard manipulated him and got in his head. It’s the same old thing! Like I said, it’s boxing. It’s boxing. People got to write something. What are you going to do? Not do your job? Somebody has got to write something! When you got a guy who’s been around as many years as Bernard what are you going to write that hasn’t been written? If you want to go back to his prison stint, this, that, or the other thing, what can you write that hasn’t been written? You got to write something!
But like I said and I told people, Chad with these young guys, and I said it a long time ago in the light heavyweight division. I said Chad is the most technically sound. Me and Bernard argued about that. He disagrees. I said Chad was the most technically sound of the young guys. Chad has never been a superstar. They tried to make him one, they do interviews, they want to make him a superstar because boxing needs superstars to go forward! The Oscars and all of these guys have retired. So they need future stars. So they pushed. So people want to see the next guy! We want to see the next thing that we can follow for a long time, because we love the sport! So they tried to make him a superstar, but he’s not! He’s a champion. He’s a guy who knows how to win 7 out of 12 rounds. That makes you a champion. There is nothing flashy. There is nothing flamboyant about him. He can do different haircuts and do whatever he wants. You just have to have that to come out with that swagger or not. Some guys got it. Some guys don’t. He don’t have it! He can fight! He’s technically sound! I said Pascal is the most dangerous, because he closes his eyes and he swings for the fence every time. So there is always a chance he can land something, and if a 12 year old kid hits you the way Pascal is swinging he can buzz you. If a 12 year old kid closes his eyes and swings with all of his might, he will sting you with the shot. That’s why Pascal is the most dangerous, and the most aggressive was Tavoris Cloud. So this is what the young guys bring to the table.
Now for the veterans it’s time to turn it back. That’s the job. The question before us is can we turn these young talents back? When Bernard was a young monster there was nobody that could turn him back. When Shane was a young monster, the veterans couldn’t turn him back. So now they have to learn from that and see if they can turn these kids back for a second. We know the clock don’t stop ticking for nobody. So I don’t care how great you are. You know Muhammad Ali isn’t going to get in there right now and outbox Klitschko. The clock doesn’t start ticking for nobody. We understand that, but you can turn back some of these young boys for a second or two. If they don’t have the athleticism to supersede the veteran’s experience, then they put them on pause. They’re young. They can bounce back. Saul Alvarez can always come back. Chad Dawson is a young man. He can still come back. Bernard and Shane are not going to be there forever, but for right now it’s our job to hold that minute hand on that clock and say wait a minute! Give me one second. So then we’re going to put the stop watch on them and keep it moving.”
His views on the fact that whenever someone has doubted Bernard Hopkins he seems to rise to the occasion:
“Well like I said they’re going to doubt him. Now my thing was Chad made a statement that kind of threw me off balance. Chad said, ‘Bernard was scared of me’. Now no disrespect to Chad, because like I said I’ve known him since he was a child. No disrespect, but ‘afraid of you’? Yo! I had a stroke and I’m an old man and I ain’t afraid of you! If Chad swung on me, I’d swing back! If Klitschko swung on me, I’d go look for a gun! But if Chad swung on me, I’d swing back. Chad don’t have a highlight that makes you afraid of him. Tyson had highlights that would make you say, ‘I’m not even going to get in the ring with this dude!’ He had highlights that make you afraid of him. Chad don’t have no highlights that make you afraid of him. When they’re doing his highlight reels now, you can see them digging for things to try and show how serious he is. He knows how to win 7 rounds out of 12. Now Floyd and a few other of these boys, they know how to win 12 rounds out of 12. You’ve seen Bernard with Trinidad win 12 rounds out of 12. Chad knows how to win 7 rounds out of 12. You have never seen him fight and win every single round. He doesn’t have that in him. Jermain Taylor never lost a round until he fought Bernard Hopkins. This is the difference in some athletes. You said it. They’re going to count him out. They’re going to count Bernard out. I told Bernard these are your fans! The ones who are counting you out are doing more for your career than the ones who are supporting you. The ones who are counting you out are the ones who motivate you.
Bernard has upset the pot so many times, he has turned back the naysayers so many times, that naysayers don’t even look bad any more when he turns them back. The public doesn’t even come on them and say look, we told ya’ll so. You can’t even go back in the gym and tease the guy and say, ‘See I told you what Bernard was going to do!’ It’s so secondary that you’re like yeah, Bernard did it again. As we look in the future we’re going to say, ‘Remember back in the day when Bernard Hopkins used to keep pushing back those young boys’. It’s how we used to say Ray Leonard used to keep coming out of retirement. But this weekend we deliver it, so we get to enjoy it! We get to enjoy it up close and personal.”
***
by Geoffrey Ciani (Exclusive Interview by Jenna J & Geoffrey Ciani) - This week’s edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio featured an exclusive interview with world class trainer Brother Nazim Richardson, who is preparing WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (52-5-2, 32 KOs) for his rematch with Chad Dawson (30-1, 17 KOs) this Saturday night. In addition, Nazim is also preparing Sugar Shane Mosley (46-7-1, 39 KOs) for a May 5 clash against WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez (39-0-1, 29 KOs). Richardson spoke about the upcoming fights for Hopkins and Mosley, and also shared his views on Andre Ward as well as the upcoming that feature Floyd Mayweather Junior squaring off against Miguel Cotto and Manny Pacquiao taking on Timothy Bradley. Here is what Richardson had to say:
Regarding Bernard Hopkins’ training and preparations for his rematch against Chad Dawson:
“Bernard’s a veteran, and as I told him not too long, a day or two ago I told him now he is a complete fighter. You hear people say this guy’s a complete fighter, that guy’s a complete fighter. Bernard now is a complete fighter because the one aspect he didn’t have it one time is he never knew when to rest. He never knew when to take a break. Now finally he’ll do that at times. He listens to his body and he’ll know when to take that break. So you know camp is different for us. Guys go into camp and say we have to have a great camp. Bernard lives the lifestyle of a fighter. So it’s not about camp. It’s just about him focusing on the task.”
His views on the first fight between Hopkins and Dawson:
“Yeah it was a disappointing outcome for all parties involved. You know people read into it and they start speculating, and you know something? That really kind of baffles me! I mean I’d understand that if we were talking about some of the newer kids, if we were talking a Danny Garcia, if we were talking about some of these new guys like Adrien Broner, because we’re still learning about these guys! But with a guy like Bernard, I don’t get it when people fall apart and say, ‘Hey you know, Chad looked strong early!’ And I ask them, ‘How many fights have we been in with Bernard Hopkins where the guy looks strong early?’ The one fight where the guy didn’t look strong early Bernard lost to Calzaghe! That was the one fight that Bernard put him on the canvas in the first round and he wound up losing that fight. You know with the Chad Dawson debacle in the first fight, like you always hear me tell Bernard, it’s nothing we haven’t seen. We’ve been here before. Robert Allen threw us out of the ring. The ankle was messed up. We had the rematch. You know it’s nothing we haven’t seen. You will hear other fighters say it, but with Bernard Hopkins it is actually true. The only thing Bernard Hopkins hasn’t seen is ‘Fan Man’ come down in the middle of his ring!”
On why he feels so many observers are being so critical of Bernard after less than two rounds of action in his first fight with Dawson:
“Because the odds are with you when you’re dealing with an older fighter. There’s always a good chance you can be right. What most people all do is when they go to fights and see fights they want to be able to tell you, ‘I told you so’. So if you notice some people could be wrong 500 time, then it’s 501 and they say, ‘See, told you so!’ You know what I mean. So guys will improve their odds if they keep saying the old guy is going to lose, the old guy is going to lose, because we feel like eventually the old guy will lose! So if I keep saying it there’s a good chance I can be right. So any inkling of showing you that will make everybody jump on that bandwagon so they can come to the gym Monday morning and say, ‘This was the kid! Didn’t I tell you?’ And they’ll keep searching for him. Think about it! You look at the first two rounds with Chad Dawson, or you look at the first two rounds of Jean Pascal in his first fight with Bernard, and who looked better? In the first couple of rounds with Jean Pascal he had Bernard on the canvas like two times! Keep counting them old dudes out, man. Pacquiao came out and put Marquez down three times in the first round, and that old timer got up and won every round after that.”
On whether he believes Bernard’s mindset is different going into the rematch because of what happened in the first fight:
“You don’t even include what happened in the first fight, because there was no first fight. It was a couple of rounds. It would be like you went into the mindset of this fight with the first couple of rounds of sparring last week. You can’t emphasize what you did in the first couple of rounds of sparring last week. You have to look at it and encompass it as a whole, and look at the entire situation. Chad Dawson is a big, young, strong kid. Who hasn’t been a big, young, strong kid in front of this old-timer. See if you put some of these veterans in here with Bernard they would be big, young, strong kids compared to what Bernard is now. So we got all that. That pressure is on that young bull. See when we talk about these younger guys and they want to say I’m bigger, I’m younger, I’m stronger, I’m faster. Okay!
The minute I hear that come out of your mouth—that you’re bigger, you’re younger, you’re stronger, and you’re faster—the minute that comes out of your mouth then you better do a Mike Tyson, because Mike Tyson proved he was bigger, younger, stronger, and faster, and he ran them old dudes out of this game! He didn’t come in and pitty-pat for twelve rounds, chess match, this, that, and the other thing. There was no crying and complaining because they thought they won that round or any of that. He came out and showed I’m bigger, I’m younger, I’m stronger, and I’m faster. There was no reason for anyone to doubt him! The judges could have stayed in the hotel when Tyson came out, because if you’re bigger, younger, stronger, and faster—we got the only sport that if you are really bigger, younger, and stronger, and that far in front—we got the only sport where, it’s over! See it doesn’t matter how many points that the 76ers go up against the Orlando Magic. They’re going to play all four quarters! We have the only sport where if you’re that much better on that night, we’re stopping it! It’s over!”
On whether he believes Bernard learned more about Chad than Dawson learned about Hopkins during the round-plus that they fought:
“That was going to happen regardless. The reason why that was going to happen regardless, I took Chad away to the under-19 tournament when he was a kid. When Chad was a kid he used to ask me questions about Bernard Hopkins. When Andre Ward was a kid he used to bug me to death about Bernard Hopkins. So these kids have been watching these guys forever. They grew up on these guys, so of course they knew more about them. Chad didn’t come on Bernard’s radar until pretty much when Bernard went to fight Pascal. Chad didn’t show up on Bernard’s radar until then, so of course he was going to learn more about him in the fight in the few seconds they had been together.”
On whether the upcoming fight between Shane Mosley and Saul Alvarez reminds him at all of the atmosphere before Shane’s fight with Antonio Margarito when everyone was counting Mosley out then the way they are now:
“And the bottom line, I even see it in Shane in his preparations, and his health, and in his response. I see a lot of similarities to the Margarito fight. You know what I mean, and people don’t remember something I said a long time ago before the Margarito fight. I said, ‘Listen, I don’t know if Shane’s going to respond like this all the time or if he’s just showing off because he’s trying to impress me because it’s my first time working with him. But whatever it is I’m going to take advantage of it’, and that’s the way I felt about it this time, too. I mean if you show me you want it I’m going to jump on top of it and try and help you get it. But Saul Alvarez is a special young athlete. He’s difficult to prepare for because he’s up and coming. So we don’t know if Saul Alvarez has a chin. We don’t know if he can take a great body shot. We don’t know these things because we’ve yet to see him do these against any athlete of extreme quality at this level or veteran experience at this level. Baldomir was an older fighter but he wasn’t a veteran.”
His evaluation of Saul Alvarez’s latest performance in his victory against Kermit Cintron:
“It’s like I told you. I can’t put a lot of credence into what Saul Alvarez has done in many of these fights, because his advantages have been so vast. There is not a fight he goes into that I’ve seen where all of the advantages weigh on his side. You can’t really prepare based on that. We have to look at the fact that this time he doesn’t have the experience that our guy has. He hasn’t been in the limelight. He hasn’t been in this level of fight where he has never looked across the ring and seen a name this big in front of him. So know we’ll find out some things. What we have to do is prepare to make sure. I equated to Shane like this. I said, ‘We didn’t know that Trinidad got up off the canvas and fought like a monster until Yori Boy Campas got him, and then we found out! And many people found out after that, but that’s when we first found out that Trinidad gets up off the canvas and can still annihilate! So we got to prepare for any surprises like that with Canelo. He might have a chin of iron, but we don’t know that yet because we haven’t really seen him been tested right.”
On whether he still feels we have not yet seen the best of Andre Ward, in reference to previous claims he made “On the Ropes” when the Super Six was just underway:
“Yeah and I told Ward when he saw me, he said, ‘Brother Nazim, you know me well!’ I said, ‘Listen brother, I still know there’s an aspect of your game that boxing hasn’t even seen, and they’ll be surprised when they see it’. The kid is special. I mean with the Super Six, I told people at the beginning of the tournament when they asked me who was going to win it. I said, ‘Actually Andre Ward and Andre Dirrell will probably be in the Finals’. But I knew they wouldn’t fight each other. I picked both of them to be in the Finals and I told ya’ll that a long time ago. When it came to Andre Ward everybody was counting him out against the Viking, against Kessler who I like. I told them Kessler did better in that fight than I thought he would do. Kessler did better against Andre Ward than I thought he would do. Allan Green did better in the fight than I thought he would do. Andre Ward is the truth, man!”
On whether he believes Andre Ward is a future Pound-for-Pound King in boxing:
“A guy once posed a question to me, a buddy of mine actually in the gym. He said, ‘If you had to pick out of these young kids a future Hall of Famer, how would you do it?’ I said, ‘You can’t pick out a Hall of Famer. You can guesstimate a champion. You can take a good guess on a kid who may do some things, or win a title, or do well, or things like that. But if you saw early Bernard Hopkins you wouldn’t have said Hall of Famer. You know what I mean. If you saw early Larry Holmes, I have some early tapes on Larry Holmes, you would have never said Hall of Famer’. So you can’t guarantee someone will be a Hall of Famer, but if a gun was put to my head the only athlete I would say that about would be Andre Ward. He’s the only kid.
Pound-for-Pound? Did you say future Pound-for-Pound? Oh! You said ‘King’, because I was going to say he should be considered Pound-for-Pound now! You know once you can make the Pound-for-Pound list, you know there’s a chance you can rise to the top of it. Like I told him, as much as I respect that little Floyd Mayweather, and I’ve known him since he was a kid and I respect that young boy. He said one time to me, ‘I’m the best undefeated fighter! The only champion that’s undefeated’, and blah, blah, blah, and I was like he must not know who Andre Ward is!
The reason why I pick Andre Ward to be a Pound-for-Pound and even a Hall of Famer, is because the one thing I don’t really worry about with Ward is I’m comfortable with Ward’s demeanor outside the ring. See I’m comfortable with Ward when it comes to that, and that’s where a lot of these superstar young boys that are coming up scare me! Like I said, think about it! If you look at a kid can you imagine your child becoming a multi-millionaire and then you still have to see him go to jail? When your kids become millionaires you figure we cool! You figure as a parent your done! I got him past, college is paid for, and he’s got enough left to send the grandkids to college. We good! Then you got to go to jail. There are jokers down the street in the projects in north Philadelphia whose parents are sitting there preparing for their children to go to jail. So this is where I get comfortable with a guy like Andre Ward. His demeanor and knowing his character, having me him, his trainer, knowing his father before his father passed, his kids, his wife, you know what I mean. He’s a solid kid! We pray nothing stupid happens because we are all one bad decision away from doing jail time, so I don’t point my fingers at anybody. Anybody can be in a bar and scuttlebutt where something stupid goes dumb, and there’s nothing worse than when something stupid goes dumb.”
His views on the Floyd Mayweather Junior versus Miguel Cotto bout and whether he sees it as a one-sided mismatch in favor of Floyd:
“Well you can’t just lock in on one-sided, because last time Floyd has been at this weight was probably his toughest contest when he fought Oscar. Cotto’s a kid who has pretty much reenergized himself. You know he felt like he went back and redeemed himself from the Margarito fight, and Cotto’s a special kid, too. So one-sided? I never count on that against champions, against guys who are true champions. You don’t see one-sided. As far out as Floyd is talent-wise, and I told people this years ago because we dealt with it with Roy Jones. When Roy Jones came along and Trinidad was coming along I told people. I told Bernard! Me and Bernard had words about this. I said, ‘You want to be the best fighter in boxing? You got to beat Trinidad. Pound-for-Pound Roy Jones is the most talented fighter in boxing. Pound-for-Pound God gave him the most gifts’. So he’s the most talented fighter in boxing. It’s like saying yes Yao Ming is the tallest guy on the team. That’s just a gift! Nobody else could be that tall if they wanted to. So Pound-for-Pound Roy was the most talented, but I said, ‘Pound-for-Pound Trinidad is the best fighter’.
Once again in this era we go through it again. Pound-for-Pound Floyd is the most talented, but Pound-for-Pound Pacquiao is the best fighter in boxing! This is why everybody calls for that and they keep looking for it. Me myself, I never pursued a girl for that long so nothing holds my interest for that long. Maybe I got attention deficit syndrome, but I ain’t never been interested in something that long except for wanting to see my grandkids to go to school. Me waiting this long to see these two guys fight there is nothing they can do to satisfy me now. For them to satisfy me in a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, then it’s got to be better than Hagler and Hearns. It’s got to be better than Hagler and Hearns. Now anybody in boxing, you say that and they’ll understand what I’m saying. If it ain’t better than Hagler-Hearns it’s a letdown to me. I got to wait six years to see two dudes fight and I get a chess match? You can keep that! I ain’t even interested anymore.”
His views on who has the tougher challenge: Manny Pacquiao in his fight against Timothy Bradley or Floyd Mayweather Junior in his fight with Miguel Cotto:
“It’s down the line. I’ve known Timmy since he was a kid, too. The beautiful thing about Timmy is that nothing you see on tape or DVD shows you Timmy Bradley. If you watch Timmy throw a left hook or a right hand on DVD you’re really not all that impressed. But how does this guy keep winning? That’s what I’m saying. Some people have mastered the art of winning. I once said that about Ward. I said Ward is the Tim Duncan of boxing. He does nothing exceptionally special, but he wins all the time. There will be no championships unless you go through him. So Tim Bradley is very much like that in the sense that you can watch him on DVD, and you can see well I can counter his hook, and I can counter his right hand, and I can do this, and I can do that. So that’s where Tim is tough. Tim is very tough in that sense, but we know if Pacquiao cracks you and hits you with that ooh-wee, and you see it time and time again when guys’ eyes get back and they say ooh-wee!”
His views on what Hopkins can do that will cause Dawson the most problems inside the ring:
“The same thing that would have caused him problems in the first had it went on—you’re dealing with a veteran! I told people two things happen every time you step in the ring competitively, every single time! I don’t care if it’s sparring. Whenever you step in the ring competitively one of two things will happen. You either take punishment or you take experience. Bernard is one of the few fighters in my life that I watched in the gym, out of the gym, on television, anywhere. Every time he steps in the ring he takes experience. He’s the one fighter I’ve never seen let the sparring partners get the better of him, and not because he was just so much more talented. Like I mean Mayweather is just better than all of his sparring partners! So I’m sure he’s probably the same way, but it’s not because Bernard was better than all of them. There are so many young guys that are actually more physically gifted than Bernard! But he will never let you have an edge regardless, and this is what makes him a special fighter—he’s creativity and still with his maturation and when I watch I tell people all the time.
We talk about a guy getting old. When I was a young man I used to go out and get the bags for the groceries. I’d carry all of them! I was so strong, and I was a freakish strong young boy. I’d carry all the bags. My family would say, ‘Why don’t you take another trip?’ ‘I got it!’, and I got all the bags. As I got a little older I’d take one or two trips. Now when I see the groceries coming in I call my sons, because I still want to get the groceries in the house but as I’ve gotten older I’ve found a smarter way and an easier way for me to still get the job done, and that’s what Bernard Hopkins has done in boxing. When he was a young boy he used to just bulldoze you and hit you with the right hand. As he’s gotten older he learned to maneuver and put you in position for the right hand. As he’s even gotten older now he’s learned to manipulate you and make you give him the shot for the right hand. We got older fighters than we got experienced fighters. Every older fighter is not an experienced fighter. That’s why I told you with Baldomir who I have a great deal of respect for, for things he’s done and things he’s accomplished, Baldomir was an older fighter but he wasn’t a veteran. He wasn’t an experienced fighter like that.”
On whether he believes Chad Dawson’s biggest advantage going into the rematch is his youth:
“It’s the same advantages that I told ya’ll that Pascal had. He’s young, he’s big, he’s strong, he’s determined—these are his advantages. Then being a southpaw would be an advantage for most people, but Bernard has handled so many southpaws. That’s kind of what’s going to trick Chad Dawson up a little bit too in a sense, because Bernard has dealt with southpaws. When you get in there and you see a guy who’s really dealt with southpaws, I mean really can do it! Every fighter says I’m a fighter, I’m a boxer-puncher, southpaws don’t bother me—you know everybody says that, and then they get in there and we watch them and we see something different. Bernard is really truthful. There is nothing you can show him in the sport except for Fan Man, unless Chad is a big enough puncher to just knock him dead. We’ve never seen that either.”
His prediction on what critics and fans will be saying about the Hopkins-Dawson rematch when all is said and done:
“Let me just tell you something that I want to clarify. Bernard’s going to be mad at me because I’m giving it to the media, because he didn’t want to give it to the media. But I will. The reason why Bernard wouldn’t do stare downs and why he didn’t want to do the stare downs from the first press conference is because Bernard, and I’m an advocate of it, too! I’m so sick of hearing about how Bernard got in this person’s head, how Bernard got in that person’s head, if he blinks his eye, did you see the way Bernard blinked his eye? Oh he’s a cagey veteran! He blinked his eye and got in the kid’s head! Oh did you see the way he tipped his hat? That made Chad mad at the weigh-in! All of this Bernard got in his head, and nobody says Bernard can fight! He always got in somebody’s head. He plays head games! Well if he can play head games why doesn’t he just sit on the couch, call the head game in, and just relax and get his check? I mean it’s ridiculous, and when he beats one of these guys he got in his head! That’s why he didn’t want to do the stare downs or nothing. You can’t say he looked in his eyes in he did that, he said something at the press conference and that did that to him. There will be none of that! It will have to show that Bernard can fight and he is still willing to train and sacrifice his body and his time away from his family to make the commitment to deal with these young guys, while these young guys are out buying Bentleys and being rock stars.
They’re going to say Bernard got in Chad’s head! ‘Chad was doing good and then when Bernard landed that one body shot he mentally did this to Chad’. Or ‘Bernard stepped around and he started mentally looking in Chad’s eyes!’ That’s how I answer the question. It’s going to be the same old, same old! Bernard got in his head! Somehow Bernard manipulated him and got in his head. It’s the same old thing! Like I said, it’s boxing. It’s boxing. People got to write something. What are you going to do? Not do your job? Somebody has got to write something! When you got a guy who’s been around as many years as Bernard what are you going to write that hasn’t been written? If you want to go back to his prison stint, this, that, or the other thing, what can you write that hasn’t been written? You got to write something!
But like I said and I told people, Chad with these young guys, and I said it a long time ago in the light heavyweight division. I said Chad is the most technically sound. Me and Bernard argued about that. He disagrees. I said Chad was the most technically sound of the young guys. Chad has never been a superstar. They tried to make him one, they do interviews, they want to make him a superstar because boxing needs superstars to go forward! The Oscars and all of these guys have retired. So they need future stars. So they pushed. So people want to see the next guy! We want to see the next thing that we can follow for a long time, because we love the sport! So they tried to make him a superstar, but he’s not! He’s a champion. He’s a guy who knows how to win 7 out of 12 rounds. That makes you a champion. There is nothing flashy. There is nothing flamboyant about him. He can do different haircuts and do whatever he wants. You just have to have that to come out with that swagger or not. Some guys got it. Some guys don’t. He don’t have it! He can fight! He’s technically sound! I said Pascal is the most dangerous, because he closes his eyes and he swings for the fence every time. So there is always a chance he can land something, and if a 12 year old kid hits you the way Pascal is swinging he can buzz you. If a 12 year old kid closes his eyes and swings with all of his might, he will sting you with the shot. That’s why Pascal is the most dangerous, and the most aggressive was Tavoris Cloud. So this is what the young guys bring to the table.
Now for the veterans it’s time to turn it back. That’s the job. The question before us is can we turn these young talents back? When Bernard was a young monster there was nobody that could turn him back. When Shane was a young monster, the veterans couldn’t turn him back. So now they have to learn from that and see if they can turn these kids back for a second. We know the clock don’t stop ticking for nobody. So I don’t care how great you are. You know Muhammad Ali isn’t going to get in there right now and outbox Klitschko. The clock doesn’t start ticking for nobody. We understand that, but you can turn back some of these young boys for a second or two. If they don’t have the athleticism to supersede the veteran’s experience, then they put them on pause. They’re young. They can bounce back. Saul Alvarez can always come back. Chad Dawson is a young man. He can still come back. Bernard and Shane are not going to be there forever, but for right now it’s our job to hold that minute hand on that clock and say wait a minute! Give me one second. So then we’re going to put the stop watch on them and keep it moving.”
His views on the fact that whenever someone has doubted Bernard Hopkins he seems to rise to the occasion:
“Well like I said they’re going to doubt him. Now my thing was Chad made a statement that kind of threw me off balance. Chad said, ‘Bernard was scared of me’. Now no disrespect to Chad, because like I said I’ve known him since he was a child. No disrespect, but ‘afraid of you’? Yo! I had a stroke and I’m an old man and I ain’t afraid of you! If Chad swung on me, I’d swing back! If Klitschko swung on me, I’d go look for a gun! But if Chad swung on me, I’d swing back. Chad don’t have a highlight that makes you afraid of him. Tyson had highlights that would make you say, ‘I’m not even going to get in the ring with this dude!’ He had highlights that make you afraid of him. Chad don’t have no highlights that make you afraid of him. When they’re doing his highlight reels now, you can see them digging for things to try and show how serious he is. He knows how to win 7 rounds out of 12. Now Floyd and a few other of these boys, they know how to win 12 rounds out of 12. You’ve seen Bernard with Trinidad win 12 rounds out of 12. Chad knows how to win 7 rounds out of 12. You have never seen him fight and win every single round. He doesn’t have that in him. Jermain Taylor never lost a round until he fought Bernard Hopkins. This is the difference in some athletes. You said it. They’re going to count him out. They’re going to count Bernard out. I told Bernard these are your fans! The ones who are counting you out are doing more for your career than the ones who are supporting you. The ones who are counting you out are the ones who motivate you.
Bernard has upset the pot so many times, he has turned back the naysayers so many times, that naysayers don’t even look bad any more when he turns them back. The public doesn’t even come on them and say look, we told ya’ll so. You can’t even go back in the gym and tease the guy and say, ‘See I told you what Bernard was going to do!’ It’s so secondary that you’re like yeah, Bernard did it again. As we look in the future we’re going to say, ‘Remember back in the day when Bernard Hopkins used to keep pushing back those young boys’. It’s how we used to say Ray Leonard used to keep coming out of retirement. But this weekend we deliver it, so we get to enjoy it! We get to enjoy it up close and personal.”
***
Iceman John Scully: “Hopkins is no dummy! He knows he’s in there for a real fight. I don’t think he’d bet a million dollars on himself. Put it that way.”
by Geoffrey Ciani (Exclusive Interview by Jenna J & Geoffrey Ciani) - This week’s edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio featured an exclusive interview with trainer Iceman John Scully, who is preparing Chad Dawson (30-1, 17 KOs) for his upcoming rematch against WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (52-5-2, 32 KOs) this Saturday night. Scully spoke about the upcoming rematch and reflected back on the unusual circumstances that brought the first bout to a premature ending. He also shared opinions on other aspects pertaining to the current boxing landscape, including the upcoming May 5 fight between Floyd Mayweather Junior and Miguel Cotto, as well as the June 9 contest involving Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley. Here is what Iceman had to say:
On how preparations have gone for Chad Dawson’s upcoming rematch against Bernard Hopkins:
“So far, so good. I mean we’re actually still in a little bit of preparation mode. It’s not done yet, but he feels great. He said to me several times over the last couple of weeks that this is the best he’s ever felt going into a fight. So I’ll take him at his word.”
His views on the first fight between Hopkins and Dawson:
“Well I mean Chad I think has gotten a bad rap from a lot of people. Like you’ll read articles online where people say Chad flung him to the floor, and he planned it out, and it was a calculated body slam. If you watch the video—and I challenge anyone to go to Youtube right now and watch it, watch it in real time—literally as soon as Hopkins ended up on his back he was off, like it actually happened in the blink of an eye, in the span of a second and a half. I mean it was no premeditated thing. It just happened. He was on his back and Chad got him off. That was his first reaction, was to get this guy off his back. I certainly don’t believe for a second that Chad thought in a million years that Hopkins would end up falling. I mean I clearly saw where Chad shrugged him off expecting him to maintain on his feet and just be bumped off. I was shocked when Hopkins hit the floor. I mean he looked like he got shot out of a cannon. So it happened. He fell. I can’t sit here and accuse the guy of lying and say he wasn’t hurt, but I do believe his injury whatever it was, I don’t think it was as bad as he has made it out to be, and I have my reasons for thinking that.”
His views on why Bernard Hopkins is taking this rematch considering Dawson claimed that Hopkins was scared of him:
“Here’s the facts, and again I’m not the type to say a world class fighter is scared. That’s hard for me to actually say, but throughout history, like people back in the 50s say Sugar Ray Robinson never fought Charley Burley because he thought he would lose. You know whether he did or not, I don’t know. That’s the story that’s been going around for the last 60 years. Now Hopkins knows what he’s up against. Clearly you’re in with a guy who’s much bigger than you. He’s very tall. No disrespect to the other guys, but when I think Pavlik was favored over Hopkins at the time, Pavlik was pretty hot, Pavlik was tall and strong. But Pavlik didn’t have the movement, and the hand speed, and the boxing skills that Chad has, and you know it’s common knowledge that he had a drinking problem and he was in the middle of that. So Hopkins picks his fight pretty well, and I think clearly he didn’t want to fight Chad in the rematch. I mean if you go back on the internet you can Google it. I mean Richard Schaefer in the weeks after the first fight, he out and out said there would be no rematch. There would never be a rematch. We don’t want the fight. It’s not a good fight, it doesn’t draw, etc, etc, etc. So Richard Schaefer himself was very much against this rematch happening. I obviously know for a fact that id the WBC didn’t order it they wouldn’t be fighting again. I mean Bernard can’t say he just jumped up and asked for the fight. He took it because the WBC ordered it. Anyone can say well all he had to do was give up the title, because everybody would say he was afraid and I’m sure Bernard doesn’t want to live his life having people believe that. So he was kind of backed into a corner in that regard.”
His opinion on why Bernard was not interested in doing an HBO Face-Off for the promotion of this bout:
“You know I was standing there at the press conference in New York City about eight weeks ago or whatever it was, and Bernard flat out refused to even do a faceoff to take the traditional picture of the two guys face to face. He didn’t even want to do that. You know on the one hand I guess it’s a publicity ploy, and a mental game, and he’s trying to have everybody wonder what’s he thinking, and he’s giving it a new approach. But just the fact that he’s going through this tells me how seriously he’s taking Chad and how much of a threat he obviously sees Chad to be. I mean he wouldn’t go through all of this hocus-pocus if it was for just a regular guy. So I think Chad should take it as a compliment that Bernard is going out of character a little bit, because everybody knows he loves to talk and hype up the fights and everything, and now all of a sudden he’s being very quiet. That would tell me that he realizes what he’s up against and he’s doing what he’s supposed to do. He’s focusing on the fight the best that he can.”
On whether he believes Chad learned anything at all about Bernard as a fighter during their brief encounter the first time around:
“I mean on the one hand yes, and on the other hand no. You know it wasn’t a deep fight. You didn’t really get to learn a million different things, but he got a sense of Bernard and he absolutely has confidence. Going into the rematch based on the first fight he definitely has confidence, and I’ll tell you something that a lot of people don’t know and a boxer would know exactly what I mean. Anyone that’s had confrontations will understand this, but in the first fight if you remember there was an instant where Chad ended up putting his forearm under Bernard’s throat and he had him against the ropes. I don’t know if you remember that, but Hopkins was against the ropes and Chad put his forearm under him like a crossbow. People saw it, and I was right below them when it happened, I was looking right up at it, and I thought it was good because Bernard had just tried to headbutt Chad right before that and Chad did that to him. The thing I distinctly remember was Chad put his face, like they were literally inches apart, and Chad was looking right into his eyes. For months after the fight I kept saying to myself that was good. Like that was a turning point in the fight because Chad was showing him, he was looking at him as if to say, ‘Now what? Now what are you going to do? You tried to headbutt me and now look at you’. That’s a mental game. What I didn’t know, and I didn’t know until recently when Chad told me, when Chad had him up against the ropes and was looking right in his eyes he told him, he said, ‘Not tonight’. I thought that was really indicative because the fight ended 20 seconds later or 30 seconds later. So if you can picture the scenario, picture the scene, and picture how that went down when Hopkins tried to headbutt him, and the next thing he knows he’s against the ropes and this guy is jamming his arm up under his throat and he’s telling him, ‘Not tonight’. I thought that was really indicative of something. If he didn’t know it yet, Hopkins knew at that moment that he was in with a real guy that wasn’t going to be intimidated like a lot of the other guys that Hopkins had fought before.”
Regarding how confident he believes Bernard Hopkins will be entering the rematch:
“I mean on the one hand I look at him and he’s a legendary fighter, and a long time champion, and he’s beaten top fighters, and the whole nine. You have to figure he’s confident, but by the same token I feel like he felt Chad’s strengths in that first fight, physically and mentally. As I said in that instant he saw that Chad was mentally a lot stronger than I think he had given him credit for. So I certainly don’t think, despite what he says, I don’t think Hopkins is coming into this fight 100% confident thinking he’s just going to outbox this guy or outpunch this guy, because Chad is a handful just the way he’s built with his height, his strength, his combination punching, his youth. I mean you put all of those things together and that’s something. He has a lot of things that the better guys Hopkins has beaten over the last ten years hasn’t had. As impressive as that bunch was, none of them were as big as Chad, were as strong as Chad, none of them had the physical abilities that Chad had, and certainly none of them exhibited the fearlessness that Chad does when he’s in the ring with Hopkins. So Hopkins is no dummy! He knows he’s in there for a real fight. I don’t think he’d bet a million dollars on himself. Put it that way.”
On whether he is prepared in the event Chad suffers mental lapses and loses focus as he has traditionally done in the past:
“I’m all over it, and you know I’ve recognized that for a long time. You know that’s a fair criticism of Chad, and we’ve talked about it. We talked about it just as recently as three days ago. If you notice many people after the last fight, I had dozens, and dozens of people on the internet and in person say something to the effect of, ‘Wow! Chad really looked different, like he really looked motivated and focused. I’ve never seen him like that’. I know Marlon Starling, the former welterweight champion, he called me up after the fight and he said that was the best he ever saw Chad look. He said he loved Chad’s determination and focus. So I’ve definitely gotten that into his head, and we did it again for this fight and he’s showing it in the gym. I honestly don’t think that’s going to be a problem anymore. I think I’ve tapped into Chad’s brain and we have a connection, and I have certain things that I talk to him about that I think have illustrated to him exactly what it is. One thing I will say, I told him before the last fight, I said, ‘You know in life, your critics are probably the most honest people you will ever meet. The people that don’t like you, and the people that are just really irritated with you, you know anger always brings out the truth. Don’t be mad. Don’t be mad when people say you don’t have the spirit, or the fire, or you’re not hungry. Don’t be mad! Think about why they would say that. What would make them say that? They’re not pulling that out of the air. There’s a reason why they would say that. Always listen to your critics because they’re the most truthful people out there. You know your fans are always going to say you look great, you’re the best, you’re the man, and they never tell you the bad things’. So I think he sees that point of view and we’re definitely dealing with it in that fashion.”
On whether he views the fight with Hopkins as a lose-lose situation for Dawson because if Chad loses it is bad for his career, and if he wins his victory might be discredited because of Bernard’s age:
“I mean you can’t really let it bother you, but it’s just funny how people are. You know it’s like Roy Jones. There was a time when Roy Jones could do no wrong. This guy was the phenom of the world. People had never seen the likes of him, and then when he started getting knocked out people said, ‘Oh yeah, he never had a chin’. Come on! The guy was Superman there for like twelve years, and now all of a sudden he’s like the butt of your jokes. The same thing happened to Mike Tyson. I mean Hopkins beat Pascal twice and he looked great doing it, and he beat Pavlik when he was a big underdog and he won lopsided. So Hopkins, you have to give him his credit. He clearly shows that age is not a factor. I mean he doesn’t fight like an old man. His skills are good and he’s beaten much younger guys. So I’m always telling Chad let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Don’t think about his age. Don’t count on Bernard Hopkins being old, because look at his last fight. He didn’t look old to me.”
His views on the difference between the Chad Dawson of today and the Chad Dawson he had previously worked with:
“You know what? And I mean this in the best way possible. There isn’t really that much difference. You know the only thing obviously would be his maturity level and his strength, his physical strength. Back then he was strong and he didn’t know it and he didn’t know how to use it. Now he’s strong and he knows it and he knows how to use it. I always tell people, one of my things that illustrates our whole relationship was, when I trained him before he was like a kid who kind of looked up to me, because when he was a kid and I was around him I was fighting Michael Nunn and I was fighting for the IBF title, so I was kind of like the grownup guy and he was only 14 or 15 at the time. So he kind of looked up to me I guess you could say. So he kind of grew up knowing me like that, and that’s just the way our relationship has unfolded, and it’s working out so far.”
On whether he considers it a challenge to go up against the old school corner of great boxing minds led by Nazim Richardson:
“I mean I don’t really look at it like that at all. You know it’s the fighter against the fighter, because the fact of the matter is, as great as their minds may or may not be, they still need the vehicle. I mean they had Mosley against Pacquiao and Mayweather, and no disrespect to Mosley, but those great minds in the corner didn’t help at all. So there was no magic that night. You need the fighter to utilize the magic tricks. So if they have it, you know a fighter can make a trainer look good. A trainer can be good, but he needs the fighter to cooperate. In my own career I’ve given admittedly, and I’m not ashamed to say it, but I’ve given some great advice in the corner on fight night, and the fighters that I had on that particular night that I gave the advice to, you know they were in with a better fighter, or they were in with a guy that they couldn’t carry the plan against. You know it’s kind of a funny situation. I feel that I have the more talented, faster, quicker fighter. My fighter has got much more upside at this moment than theirs, so if anything they’re probably at more of a disadvantage than I am as a trainer.”
His views on the May 5 showdown between Floyd Mayweather Junior and Miguel Cotto:
“You know it’s hard to go against Cotto. This is probably my stock answer. It’s hard to go against a guy like Cotto, and it’s much harder to go against a guy like Mayweather. You know Mayweather’s just impressive. I’ll tell you something and I just read this about four hours ago. I was looking online and Derrick Gainer is actually making a comeback, and he was out in Mayweather’s camp recently and he commented. They asked him about Mayweather, and he described how Mayweather trained and what he was like in the gym. Literally, word for word, the way he described Mayweather is exactly how I saw Mayweather when I saw him train out of the Top Rank Gym in Las Vegas in 2002. The way Derrick Gainer described it today with his workout and work ethic. It was identical to how I described it ten years ago. So obviously Floyd has not deviated from that successful way of training, and that’s something that you can’t say about most fighters probably. Most fighters at 24 train much better than they do at 34. They take sometimes needed shortcuts at 34, but from all reports that I’m getting Mayweather hasn’t slowed up at all. So I think he’s putting the work in and he’s going to bring his A-game. You know Cotto has a heck of an A-game, but Floyd has a better A-game.”
On whether he believes Manny Pacquiao will show any weaknesses in his upcoming June 9 fight against Timothy Bradley considering the fact many observers feel Pacquiao is in decline:
“I think he showed weaknesses against a guy that he showed weaknesses against in his best days years ago. So it’s hard to say because certain styles and a counterpuncher as Marquez is, is always going to give a guy trouble. All he really did, the only proof we have now is that he gave him as much trouble as he did before. You know I think Bradley has a little bit of a different style, and I think Bradley will probably make Pacquiao look a lot better than Marquez did.”
On what he believes is the most important thing Dawson needs to do to have his hand raised against Hopkins:
“For me, the most important thing for Chad to do is just be himself. Just like a Mayweather or like a Roy Jones, just be you and make your opponent deal with you, as opposed to having him deal with his opponent. If Chad uses his A-game, and his attributes, and keeps focused, I think the fight is there for him. I really believe. I can see a convincing type of 117-110 type of decision.”
His views on what fans can expect in the rematch between Chad Dawson and Bernard Hopkins:
“A continuation of last time in the sense of Chad coming out, showing purpose, showing all the things that the fans have gotten glimpses of over the years and the things that they’ve wanted to see from him, and I’m one of them. I’m one of the people that wants him to reach his full potential, and I think that’s on his mind. So I think he’s going to come into this fight not just trying to win, but trying to win impressively and have people talking about it the next day and say, ‘Hey! That kid is a lot better than I thought he was’.”
by Geoffrey Ciani (Exclusive Interview by Jenna J & Geoffrey Ciani) - This week’s edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio featured an exclusive interview with trainer Iceman John Scully, who is preparing Chad Dawson (30-1, 17 KOs) for his upcoming rematch against WBC light heavyweight champion Bernard Hopkins (52-5-2, 32 KOs) this Saturday night. Scully spoke about the upcoming rematch and reflected back on the unusual circumstances that brought the first bout to a premature ending. He also shared opinions on other aspects pertaining to the current boxing landscape, including the upcoming May 5 fight between Floyd Mayweather Junior and Miguel Cotto, as well as the June 9 contest involving Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley. Here is what Iceman had to say:
On how preparations have gone for Chad Dawson’s upcoming rematch against Bernard Hopkins:
“So far, so good. I mean we’re actually still in a little bit of preparation mode. It’s not done yet, but he feels great. He said to me several times over the last couple of weeks that this is the best he’s ever felt going into a fight. So I’ll take him at his word.”
His views on the first fight between Hopkins and Dawson:
“Well I mean Chad I think has gotten a bad rap from a lot of people. Like you’ll read articles online where people say Chad flung him to the floor, and he planned it out, and it was a calculated body slam. If you watch the video—and I challenge anyone to go to Youtube right now and watch it, watch it in real time—literally as soon as Hopkins ended up on his back he was off, like it actually happened in the blink of an eye, in the span of a second and a half. I mean it was no premeditated thing. It just happened. He was on his back and Chad got him off. That was his first reaction, was to get this guy off his back. I certainly don’t believe for a second that Chad thought in a million years that Hopkins would end up falling. I mean I clearly saw where Chad shrugged him off expecting him to maintain on his feet and just be bumped off. I was shocked when Hopkins hit the floor. I mean he looked like he got shot out of a cannon. So it happened. He fell. I can’t sit here and accuse the guy of lying and say he wasn’t hurt, but I do believe his injury whatever it was, I don’t think it was as bad as he has made it out to be, and I have my reasons for thinking that.”
His views on why Bernard Hopkins is taking this rematch considering Dawson claimed that Hopkins was scared of him:
“Here’s the facts, and again I’m not the type to say a world class fighter is scared. That’s hard for me to actually say, but throughout history, like people back in the 50s say Sugar Ray Robinson never fought Charley Burley because he thought he would lose. You know whether he did or not, I don’t know. That’s the story that’s been going around for the last 60 years. Now Hopkins knows what he’s up against. Clearly you’re in with a guy who’s much bigger than you. He’s very tall. No disrespect to the other guys, but when I think Pavlik was favored over Hopkins at the time, Pavlik was pretty hot, Pavlik was tall and strong. But Pavlik didn’t have the movement, and the hand speed, and the boxing skills that Chad has, and you know it’s common knowledge that he had a drinking problem and he was in the middle of that. So Hopkins picks his fight pretty well, and I think clearly he didn’t want to fight Chad in the rematch. I mean if you go back on the internet you can Google it. I mean Richard Schaefer in the weeks after the first fight, he out and out said there would be no rematch. There would never be a rematch. We don’t want the fight. It’s not a good fight, it doesn’t draw, etc, etc, etc. So Richard Schaefer himself was very much against this rematch happening. I obviously know for a fact that id the WBC didn’t order it they wouldn’t be fighting again. I mean Bernard can’t say he just jumped up and asked for the fight. He took it because the WBC ordered it. Anyone can say well all he had to do was give up the title, because everybody would say he was afraid and I’m sure Bernard doesn’t want to live his life having people believe that. So he was kind of backed into a corner in that regard.”
His opinion on why Bernard was not interested in doing an HBO Face-Off for the promotion of this bout:
“You know I was standing there at the press conference in New York City about eight weeks ago or whatever it was, and Bernard flat out refused to even do a faceoff to take the traditional picture of the two guys face to face. He didn’t even want to do that. You know on the one hand I guess it’s a publicity ploy, and a mental game, and he’s trying to have everybody wonder what’s he thinking, and he’s giving it a new approach. But just the fact that he’s going through this tells me how seriously he’s taking Chad and how much of a threat he obviously sees Chad to be. I mean he wouldn’t go through all of this hocus-pocus if it was for just a regular guy. So I think Chad should take it as a compliment that Bernard is going out of character a little bit, because everybody knows he loves to talk and hype up the fights and everything, and now all of a sudden he’s being very quiet. That would tell me that he realizes what he’s up against and he’s doing what he’s supposed to do. He’s focusing on the fight the best that he can.”
On whether he believes Chad learned anything at all about Bernard as a fighter during their brief encounter the first time around:
“I mean on the one hand yes, and on the other hand no. You know it wasn’t a deep fight. You didn’t really get to learn a million different things, but he got a sense of Bernard and he absolutely has confidence. Going into the rematch based on the first fight he definitely has confidence, and I’ll tell you something that a lot of people don’t know and a boxer would know exactly what I mean. Anyone that’s had confrontations will understand this, but in the first fight if you remember there was an instant where Chad ended up putting his forearm under Bernard’s throat and he had him against the ropes. I don’t know if you remember that, but Hopkins was against the ropes and Chad put his forearm under him like a crossbow. People saw it, and I was right below them when it happened, I was looking right up at it, and I thought it was good because Bernard had just tried to headbutt Chad right before that and Chad did that to him. The thing I distinctly remember was Chad put his face, like they were literally inches apart, and Chad was looking right into his eyes. For months after the fight I kept saying to myself that was good. Like that was a turning point in the fight because Chad was showing him, he was looking at him as if to say, ‘Now what? Now what are you going to do? You tried to headbutt me and now look at you’. That’s a mental game. What I didn’t know, and I didn’t know until recently when Chad told me, when Chad had him up against the ropes and was looking right in his eyes he told him, he said, ‘Not tonight’. I thought that was really indicative because the fight ended 20 seconds later or 30 seconds later. So if you can picture the scenario, picture the scene, and picture how that went down when Hopkins tried to headbutt him, and the next thing he knows he’s against the ropes and this guy is jamming his arm up under his throat and he’s telling him, ‘Not tonight’. I thought that was really indicative of something. If he didn’t know it yet, Hopkins knew at that moment that he was in with a real guy that wasn’t going to be intimidated like a lot of the other guys that Hopkins had fought before.”
Regarding how confident he believes Bernard Hopkins will be entering the rematch:
“I mean on the one hand I look at him and he’s a legendary fighter, and a long time champion, and he’s beaten top fighters, and the whole nine. You have to figure he’s confident, but by the same token I feel like he felt Chad’s strengths in that first fight, physically and mentally. As I said in that instant he saw that Chad was mentally a lot stronger than I think he had given him credit for. So I certainly don’t think, despite what he says, I don’t think Hopkins is coming into this fight 100% confident thinking he’s just going to outbox this guy or outpunch this guy, because Chad is a handful just the way he’s built with his height, his strength, his combination punching, his youth. I mean you put all of those things together and that’s something. He has a lot of things that the better guys Hopkins has beaten over the last ten years hasn’t had. As impressive as that bunch was, none of them were as big as Chad, were as strong as Chad, none of them had the physical abilities that Chad had, and certainly none of them exhibited the fearlessness that Chad does when he’s in the ring with Hopkins. So Hopkins is no dummy! He knows he’s in there for a real fight. I don’t think he’d bet a million dollars on himself. Put it that way.”
On whether he is prepared in the event Chad suffers mental lapses and loses focus as he has traditionally done in the past:
“I’m all over it, and you know I’ve recognized that for a long time. You know that’s a fair criticism of Chad, and we’ve talked about it. We talked about it just as recently as three days ago. If you notice many people after the last fight, I had dozens, and dozens of people on the internet and in person say something to the effect of, ‘Wow! Chad really looked different, like he really looked motivated and focused. I’ve never seen him like that’. I know Marlon Starling, the former welterweight champion, he called me up after the fight and he said that was the best he ever saw Chad look. He said he loved Chad’s determination and focus. So I’ve definitely gotten that into his head, and we did it again for this fight and he’s showing it in the gym. I honestly don’t think that’s going to be a problem anymore. I think I’ve tapped into Chad’s brain and we have a connection, and I have certain things that I talk to him about that I think have illustrated to him exactly what it is. One thing I will say, I told him before the last fight, I said, ‘You know in life, your critics are probably the most honest people you will ever meet. The people that don’t like you, and the people that are just really irritated with you, you know anger always brings out the truth. Don’t be mad. Don’t be mad when people say you don’t have the spirit, or the fire, or you’re not hungry. Don’t be mad! Think about why they would say that. What would make them say that? They’re not pulling that out of the air. There’s a reason why they would say that. Always listen to your critics because they’re the most truthful people out there. You know your fans are always going to say you look great, you’re the best, you’re the man, and they never tell you the bad things’. So I think he sees that point of view and we’re definitely dealing with it in that fashion.”
On whether he views the fight with Hopkins as a lose-lose situation for Dawson because if Chad loses it is bad for his career, and if he wins his victory might be discredited because of Bernard’s age:
“I mean you can’t really let it bother you, but it’s just funny how people are. You know it’s like Roy Jones. There was a time when Roy Jones could do no wrong. This guy was the phenom of the world. People had never seen the likes of him, and then when he started getting knocked out people said, ‘Oh yeah, he never had a chin’. Come on! The guy was Superman there for like twelve years, and now all of a sudden he’s like the butt of your jokes. The same thing happened to Mike Tyson. I mean Hopkins beat Pascal twice and he looked great doing it, and he beat Pavlik when he was a big underdog and he won lopsided. So Hopkins, you have to give him his credit. He clearly shows that age is not a factor. I mean he doesn’t fight like an old man. His skills are good and he’s beaten much younger guys. So I’m always telling Chad let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Don’t think about his age. Don’t count on Bernard Hopkins being old, because look at his last fight. He didn’t look old to me.”
His views on the difference between the Chad Dawson of today and the Chad Dawson he had previously worked with:
“You know what? And I mean this in the best way possible. There isn’t really that much difference. You know the only thing obviously would be his maturity level and his strength, his physical strength. Back then he was strong and he didn’t know it and he didn’t know how to use it. Now he’s strong and he knows it and he knows how to use it. I always tell people, one of my things that illustrates our whole relationship was, when I trained him before he was like a kid who kind of looked up to me, because when he was a kid and I was around him I was fighting Michael Nunn and I was fighting for the IBF title, so I was kind of like the grownup guy and he was only 14 or 15 at the time. So he kind of looked up to me I guess you could say. So he kind of grew up knowing me like that, and that’s just the way our relationship has unfolded, and it’s working out so far.”
On whether he considers it a challenge to go up against the old school corner of great boxing minds led by Nazim Richardson:
“I mean I don’t really look at it like that at all. You know it’s the fighter against the fighter, because the fact of the matter is, as great as their minds may or may not be, they still need the vehicle. I mean they had Mosley against Pacquiao and Mayweather, and no disrespect to Mosley, but those great minds in the corner didn’t help at all. So there was no magic that night. You need the fighter to utilize the magic tricks. So if they have it, you know a fighter can make a trainer look good. A trainer can be good, but he needs the fighter to cooperate. In my own career I’ve given admittedly, and I’m not ashamed to say it, but I’ve given some great advice in the corner on fight night, and the fighters that I had on that particular night that I gave the advice to, you know they were in with a better fighter, or they were in with a guy that they couldn’t carry the plan against. You know it’s kind of a funny situation. I feel that I have the more talented, faster, quicker fighter. My fighter has got much more upside at this moment than theirs, so if anything they’re probably at more of a disadvantage than I am as a trainer.”
His views on the May 5 showdown between Floyd Mayweather Junior and Miguel Cotto:
“You know it’s hard to go against Cotto. This is probably my stock answer. It’s hard to go against a guy like Cotto, and it’s much harder to go against a guy like Mayweather. You know Mayweather’s just impressive. I’ll tell you something and I just read this about four hours ago. I was looking online and Derrick Gainer is actually making a comeback, and he was out in Mayweather’s camp recently and he commented. They asked him about Mayweather, and he described how Mayweather trained and what he was like in the gym. Literally, word for word, the way he described Mayweather is exactly how I saw Mayweather when I saw him train out of the Top Rank Gym in Las Vegas in 2002. The way Derrick Gainer described it today with his workout and work ethic. It was identical to how I described it ten years ago. So obviously Floyd has not deviated from that successful way of training, and that’s something that you can’t say about most fighters probably. Most fighters at 24 train much better than they do at 34. They take sometimes needed shortcuts at 34, but from all reports that I’m getting Mayweather hasn’t slowed up at all. So I think he’s putting the work in and he’s going to bring his A-game. You know Cotto has a heck of an A-game, but Floyd has a better A-game.”
On whether he believes Manny Pacquiao will show any weaknesses in his upcoming June 9 fight against Timothy Bradley considering the fact many observers feel Pacquiao is in decline:
“I think he showed weaknesses against a guy that he showed weaknesses against in his best days years ago. So it’s hard to say because certain styles and a counterpuncher as Marquez is, is always going to give a guy trouble. All he really did, the only proof we have now is that he gave him as much trouble as he did before. You know I think Bradley has a little bit of a different style, and I think Bradley will probably make Pacquiao look a lot better than Marquez did.”
On what he believes is the most important thing Dawson needs to do to have his hand raised against Hopkins:
“For me, the most important thing for Chad to do is just be himself. Just like a Mayweather or like a Roy Jones, just be you and make your opponent deal with you, as opposed to having him deal with his opponent. If Chad uses his A-game, and his attributes, and keeps focused, I think the fight is there for him. I really believe. I can see a convincing type of 117-110 type of decision.”
His views on what fans can expect in the rematch between Chad Dawson and Bernard Hopkins:
“A continuation of last time in the sense of Chad coming out, showing purpose, showing all the things that the fans have gotten glimpses of over the years and the things that they’ve wanted to see from him, and I’m one of them. I’m one of the people that wants him to reach his full potential, and I think that’s on his mind. So I think he’s going to come into this fight not just trying to win, but trying to win impressively and have people talking about it the next day and say, ‘Hey! That kid is a lot better than I thought he was’.”
Hopkins' storied career nears end as Dawson earns signature win
Story Highlights
Bernard Hopkins' career may be over after losing to Chad Dawson on Saturday
Hopkins, 47, is one of the greatest of all time and the best fighter ever over 40
Dawson won the light heavyweight title and avenged a no-contest against Hopkins
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Bernard Hopkins; Chad Dawson
Chad Dawson (right) dominated his fight against Bernard Hopkins, despite what fairly-even statistics might suggest.
Ed Mulholland/US Presswire
ATLANTIC CITY -- The tributes have already started flowing in for Bernard Hopkins, whose age-defying run at the sport's highest echelon came to an end Saturday night.
And with good reason. The 47-year-old Hopkins, who last year became the oldest fighter to win a major world title, is a surefire Hall of Famer and a bona fide legend. No fighter in history -- not Archie Moore, not George Foreman -- can match Hopkins' estimable accomplishments past the age of 40.
But let's not deny Chad Dawson his moment.
It was Dawson who coasted to a majority-decision victory over Hopkins on Saturday before 7,705 fans at Boardwalk Hall, winning back the light heavyweight title he lost to Jean Pascal in 2010 (and which Pascal ceded to Hopkins last year). The New Haven, Conn., native looked younger and faster from start to finish, delivering a clinical performance and solving one of the sport's trickiest riddles.
GALLERY: Bernard Hopkins through the years
"I did what I came to do," Dawson said. "I got my belts back."
Two judges at ringside had it 117-111 in favor of Dawson, while the third mystifyingly scored it 114-114. (SI.com had it 117-111 to Dawson.)
"I've got to give him credit: he's a future Hall of Famer," said Dawson, whose first shot at Hopkins' title in October ended in an unsatisfying no-contest when the champion suffered a shoulder injury after getting tossed to the canvas. "He's a hell of a fighter, but he's a dirty fighter. If you can get through 12 rounds with him, you can get through anything."
Not since a 1993 fight with Roy Jones, Jr., had an opponent handed Hopkins such a decisive loss. The defeats suffered by the Philadelphia icon in the 19 years since facing Jones at Washington's RFK Stadium -- razor-thin decisions against Jermain Taylor (twice) and Joe Calzaghe -- all left more questions than answers.
This one, however, was conclusive.
It's not the years that finally caught up with Hopkins (52-6-2, 32 KOs) -- if anything he looked even faster than October's abbreviated first meeting -- so much as a vastly talented opponent at his physical peak. Dawson outworked and outboxed the champion, showing the precision that's sealed his reputation as one of the sport's most technically sound fighters. "He deserves to be where he at," admitted Hopkins during the post-fight press conference. "He fought a hell of a fight."
Hopkins, a 3-to-1 underdog, reached deep into his bag of tricks Saturday night, trying to barge, feint and clinch his way to an improbable victory. An accidental head butt opened a large gash over Dawson's left eye in the fourth round -- kudos to cutman Rafael Garcia for stopping it -- and a Hopkins punch opened another over the left.
But the southpaw Dawson's control only tightened in the middle rounds, as he began to find range with the straight left while denying Hopkins the openings he probed for. Before long, the lead in the scorecards grew insurmountable, leaving Hopkins in need of a home run that never came.
"Hopkins is a master at old-school tactics," said John Scully, who trains Dawson. "It's almost impossible to knock him out, but when we turned on the pressure, we knew we were going to win the fight."
The punch stats might not appear lopsided -- the challenger landed 151 of 431 punches (35 percent), while Hopkins landed just 106 of 400 (26 percent) -- but it was Dawson who pressed the action and banked rounds that might have gone the other way.
"He's slick," Dawson said. "He's older but he knows all the tricks in the game. He picks his punches very good. He doesn't waste any energy. I knew if I made one mistake he was going to pick up on it."
The mistake never happened, despite Hopkins' consistent baiting. Dawson (31-1, 17 KOs) stuck to the gameplan and refused to fall victim to Hopkins' famed psychological tactics.
"Our whole training camp was keeping our composure, showing that he couldn't frustrate me," Dawson said. "I didn't see any intimidation in his eyes, and I'm pretty sure he didn't see any intimidation in mine."
Less than an hour after the final bell, both Dawson and Hopkins -- sharing the spotlight during a joint address to more than 100 media members and hangers-on -- expressed mutual respect. Dogged for years by his reputation as a boring fighter with an infinitesimal fan base, the normally stoic Dawson appeared as satisfied as he's looked in years, having finally bagged the signature victory that's eluded him -- even if it came against an old man.
The always talkative Hopkins, true to form, said it best: "Let this man enjoy his championship.
Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...04/29/dawson.hopkins/index.html#ixzz1tQtZXQMt
Story Highlights
Bernard Hopkins' career may be over after losing to Chad Dawson on Saturday
Hopkins, 47, is one of the greatest of all time and the best fighter ever over 40
Dawson won the light heavyweight title and avenged a no-contest against Hopkins
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Bernard Hopkins; Chad Dawson
Chad Dawson (right) dominated his fight against Bernard Hopkins, despite what fairly-even statistics might suggest.
Ed Mulholland/US Presswire
ATLANTIC CITY -- The tributes have already started flowing in for Bernard Hopkins, whose age-defying run at the sport's highest echelon came to an end Saturday night.
And with good reason. The 47-year-old Hopkins, who last year became the oldest fighter to win a major world title, is a surefire Hall of Famer and a bona fide legend. No fighter in history -- not Archie Moore, not George Foreman -- can match Hopkins' estimable accomplishments past the age of 40.
But let's not deny Chad Dawson his moment.
It was Dawson who coasted to a majority-decision victory over Hopkins on Saturday before 7,705 fans at Boardwalk Hall, winning back the light heavyweight title he lost to Jean Pascal in 2010 (and which Pascal ceded to Hopkins last year). The New Haven, Conn., native looked younger and faster from start to finish, delivering a clinical performance and solving one of the sport's trickiest riddles.
GALLERY: Bernard Hopkins through the years
"I did what I came to do," Dawson said. "I got my belts back."
Two judges at ringside had it 117-111 in favor of Dawson, while the third mystifyingly scored it 114-114. (SI.com had it 117-111 to Dawson.)
"I've got to give him credit: he's a future Hall of Famer," said Dawson, whose first shot at Hopkins' title in October ended in an unsatisfying no-contest when the champion suffered a shoulder injury after getting tossed to the canvas. "He's a hell of a fighter, but he's a dirty fighter. If you can get through 12 rounds with him, you can get through anything."
Not since a 1993 fight with Roy Jones, Jr., had an opponent handed Hopkins such a decisive loss. The defeats suffered by the Philadelphia icon in the 19 years since facing Jones at Washington's RFK Stadium -- razor-thin decisions against Jermain Taylor (twice) and Joe Calzaghe -- all left more questions than answers.
This one, however, was conclusive.
It's not the years that finally caught up with Hopkins (52-6-2, 32 KOs) -- if anything he looked even faster than October's abbreviated first meeting -- so much as a vastly talented opponent at his physical peak. Dawson outworked and outboxed the champion, showing the precision that's sealed his reputation as one of the sport's most technically sound fighters. "He deserves to be where he at," admitted Hopkins during the post-fight press conference. "He fought a hell of a fight."
Hopkins, a 3-to-1 underdog, reached deep into his bag of tricks Saturday night, trying to barge, feint and clinch his way to an improbable victory. An accidental head butt opened a large gash over Dawson's left eye in the fourth round -- kudos to cutman Rafael Garcia for stopping it -- and a Hopkins punch opened another over the left.
But the southpaw Dawson's control only tightened in the middle rounds, as he began to find range with the straight left while denying Hopkins the openings he probed for. Before long, the lead in the scorecards grew insurmountable, leaving Hopkins in need of a home run that never came.
"Hopkins is a master at old-school tactics," said John Scully, who trains Dawson. "It's almost impossible to knock him out, but when we turned on the pressure, we knew we were going to win the fight."
The punch stats might not appear lopsided -- the challenger landed 151 of 431 punches (35 percent), while Hopkins landed just 106 of 400 (26 percent) -- but it was Dawson who pressed the action and banked rounds that might have gone the other way.
"He's slick," Dawson said. "He's older but he knows all the tricks in the game. He picks his punches very good. He doesn't waste any energy. I knew if I made one mistake he was going to pick up on it."
The mistake never happened, despite Hopkins' consistent baiting. Dawson (31-1, 17 KOs) stuck to the gameplan and refused to fall victim to Hopkins' famed psychological tactics.
"Our whole training camp was keeping our composure, showing that he couldn't frustrate me," Dawson said. "I didn't see any intimidation in his eyes, and I'm pretty sure he didn't see any intimidation in mine."
Less than an hour after the final bell, both Dawson and Hopkins -- sharing the spotlight during a joint address to more than 100 media members and hangers-on -- expressed mutual respect. Dogged for years by his reputation as a boring fighter with an infinitesimal fan base, the normally stoic Dawson appeared as satisfied as he's looked in years, having finally bagged the signature victory that's eluded him -- even if it came against an old man.
The always talkative Hopkins, true to form, said it best: "Let this man enjoy his championship.
Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...04/29/dawson.hopkins/index.html#ixzz1tQtZXQMt
Andre Ward to Dawson: Let’s do it!
April 29th, 2012
By Dan Ambrose: WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward didn’t take long to respond to the challenge from WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson, who last night said he wants Ward next after Dawson defeated 47-year-old Bernard Hopkins to win his World Boxing Council title.
When asked by HBO analyst Max Kellerman which light heavyweight he wants to fight next, Dawson said “I would love to fight Andre Ward next.”
Ward said this on his twitter tonight in response to Dawson: “Let’s do it baby!! I love it bro! I’m ready.”
What a fight that would be. Ward has been waiting around for a good opponent to fall into his lap, and just when it looked like he may have to settle for a lesser fighter, Dawson comes out of the blue and says he wants Ward.
A fight between Dawson and Ward would be like a fight between a younger, faster version of Hopkins. Ward does a lot of the same things Hopkins only a lot better at this stage in Hopkins’ career. Ward has fast hands, a much better jab and an ability to fight on the inside better than Hopkins can right now. Dawson would have his hands full with Ward if they can make this fight happen. I see it as a toss up fight, because Dawson is bigger than Ward and a better overall technician.
The only thing I can think that would get in the way of this fight is Dawson fighting a rematch against Jean Pascal. He badly wants to fight Pascal again in order to avenge his earlier loss to him in August 2010 in a fight that was stopped in the 11th after Dawson suffered a bad cut. The fight ended at that point and Pascal was given a 11th round technical decision win based on his better work through much of the fight.
However, Pascal’s stock his dropped badly with his two fights against Bernard Hopkins in which Pascal got a draw and then a loss. Dawson won’t get nearly the interest in facing Pascal than he will in a fight against Ward. That’s just the way it is. Pascal hasn’t stayed active and he hasn’t fought since losing to Hopkins in May of last year. Being that inactive hurts Pascal, and Dawson will not get the same appreciation from fans in taking on him than he will the unbeaten Ward. Pascal has already been exposed by Hopkins, so there’s not much of a gain in fighting him right away.
April 29th, 2012
By Dan Ambrose: WBA super middleweight champion Andre Ward didn’t take long to respond to the challenge from WBC light heavyweight champion Chad Dawson, who last night said he wants Ward next after Dawson defeated 47-year-old Bernard Hopkins to win his World Boxing Council title.
When asked by HBO analyst Max Kellerman which light heavyweight he wants to fight next, Dawson said “I would love to fight Andre Ward next.”
Ward said this on his twitter tonight in response to Dawson: “Let’s do it baby!! I love it bro! I’m ready.”
What a fight that would be. Ward has been waiting around for a good opponent to fall into his lap, and just when it looked like he may have to settle for a lesser fighter, Dawson comes out of the blue and says he wants Ward.
A fight between Dawson and Ward would be like a fight between a younger, faster version of Hopkins. Ward does a lot of the same things Hopkins only a lot better at this stage in Hopkins’ career. Ward has fast hands, a much better jab and an ability to fight on the inside better than Hopkins can right now. Dawson would have his hands full with Ward if they can make this fight happen. I see it as a toss up fight, because Dawson is bigger than Ward and a better overall technician.
The only thing I can think that would get in the way of this fight is Dawson fighting a rematch against Jean Pascal. He badly wants to fight Pascal again in order to avenge his earlier loss to him in August 2010 in a fight that was stopped in the 11th after Dawson suffered a bad cut. The fight ended at that point and Pascal was given a 11th round technical decision win based on his better work through much of the fight.
However, Pascal’s stock his dropped badly with his two fights against Bernard Hopkins in which Pascal got a draw and then a loss. Dawson won’t get nearly the interest in facing Pascal than he will in a fight against Ward. That’s just the way it is. Pascal hasn’t stayed active and he hasn’t fought since losing to Hopkins in May of last year. Being that inactive hurts Pascal, and Dawson will not get the same appreciation from fans in taking on him than he will the unbeaten Ward. Pascal has already been exposed by Hopkins, so there’s not much of a gain in fighting him right away.
Malignaggi batters Senchenko, stopping him in the 9th!!!
April 29th, 2012
By Jim Dower: Former IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (31-4, 7 KO’s) really pounded WBA World welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko (32-1, 21 KO’s) in giving him his first loss of his career on Sunday night in a 9th round TKO victory for the 31-year-old Malignaggi at the Donbass Arena, Donetsk, Ukraine.
Malignaggi used fast movement and combinations to pound the slower, robotic looking Senchenko. As the fight went into the 2nd half of the bout, Malingaggi had Senchenko’s left eye almost completely shut. Referee Steve Smoger looked to be on the verge of stopping the fight in the 8th but let it continue despite Senchenko’s eye looking terrible.
In the 9th, Senchenko abandoned his safety first style of fighting and attempted to brawl with Malignaggi. This allowed Malignaggi to land some big shots hurting Senchenko with a nice right hand to the head. Malignaggi poured it on with body and head shots until Smoger stepped in and halted the fight at 1:10 of the 9th.
In other figths on the card:
Samir Ziani UD 12 Andriy Kudryavtsev
Stanyslav Kashtanov TKO 7 Jorge Rodriguez Olivera
Volodymyr Kravets UD 12 Abdoulaye Soukouna
Oleh Yefimovych UD 12 Sergio Carlos Santillan
Iago Kiladze KO 2 Julien Perriaux
April 29th, 2012
By Jim Dower: Former IBF light welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (31-4, 7 KO’s) really pounded WBA World welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko (32-1, 21 KO’s) in giving him his first loss of his career on Sunday night in a 9th round TKO victory for the 31-year-old Malignaggi at the Donbass Arena, Donetsk, Ukraine.
Malignaggi used fast movement and combinations to pound the slower, robotic looking Senchenko. As the fight went into the 2nd half of the bout, Malingaggi had Senchenko’s left eye almost completely shut. Referee Steve Smoger looked to be on the verge of stopping the fight in the 8th but let it continue despite Senchenko’s eye looking terrible.
In the 9th, Senchenko abandoned his safety first style of fighting and attempted to brawl with Malignaggi. This allowed Malignaggi to land some big shots hurting Senchenko with a nice right hand to the head. Malignaggi poured it on with body and head shots until Smoger stepped in and halted the fight at 1:10 of the 9th.
In other figths on the card:
Samir Ziani UD 12 Andriy Kudryavtsev
Stanyslav Kashtanov TKO 7 Jorge Rodriguez Olivera
Volodymyr Kravets UD 12 Abdoulaye Soukouna
Oleh Yefimovych UD 12 Sergio Carlos Santillan
Iago Kiladze KO 2 Julien Perriaux
Hopkins leaning towards continuing his career
April 29th, 2012
By Jim Dower: Bernard Hopkins isn’t saying whether he’ll retire or not, but it looks like he’ll continue his career after losing his WBC 175 pound title to Chad Dawson last by a 12 round majority decision.
Hopkins said this as quoted by RingTV “If you think tonight is the night that my swan song was sung, no, because I believe that there are a lot of people out there who won’t fight me…If the motivation is [Lucian] Bute, then it’s something significant where I can prove against that I’m worthy of not only being the kind of a division.”
I don’t think Hopkins has been paying attention to the news around the boxing world, because there are a lot of fighter that want to take him on now that’s suddenly showing vulnerability. WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly has already said he wants to face Hopkins, and he’d likely take the fight even now after Hopkins has been beaten. Mikkel Kessler also said he wants to face him.
You can imagine that Tavoris Cloud and Beibut Shumenov would both jump at the chance to fight Hopkins. Shumenov would be the better option for Hopkins, because he doesn’t quite throw as many shots as the high volume punching Cloud. However, there’s not much of an upside in Hopkins facing either of those guys.
I can’t see a fight between Hopkins and Cloud or Shumenov drawing many fans in the U.S. Hopkins would be better off facing Cleverly in Wales in what would likely be in front of a huge audience. The same goes for Bute if he can get past Carl Froch next month in their fight on May 26th.
Hopkins messed up his chances for winning last night by not throwing enough punches against Dawson. Had Hopkins been a tad bit busier in the ring, he would have won a lot of the close rounds and walked away with the decision. Of course, there’s no telling whether Dawson would have responded by upping his own work rate to stay ahead of Hopkins. Dawson seemed to fight down to Hopkins’ level in terms of punch volume. That’s the way Dawson has always been. If he’s with a busy fighter like Tomasz Adamek, he’ll throw a lot of punches, but against fighters that doesn’t throw many punches, he mimics their output to where he’s just barely landing more.
April 29th, 2012
By Jim Dower: Bernard Hopkins isn’t saying whether he’ll retire or not, but it looks like he’ll continue his career after losing his WBC 175 pound title to Chad Dawson last by a 12 round majority decision.
Hopkins said this as quoted by RingTV “If you think tonight is the night that my swan song was sung, no, because I believe that there are a lot of people out there who won’t fight me…If the motivation is [Lucian] Bute, then it’s something significant where I can prove against that I’m worthy of not only being the kind of a division.”
I don’t think Hopkins has been paying attention to the news around the boxing world, because there are a lot of fighter that want to take him on now that’s suddenly showing vulnerability. WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly has already said he wants to face Hopkins, and he’d likely take the fight even now after Hopkins has been beaten. Mikkel Kessler also said he wants to face him.
You can imagine that Tavoris Cloud and Beibut Shumenov would both jump at the chance to fight Hopkins. Shumenov would be the better option for Hopkins, because he doesn’t quite throw as many shots as the high volume punching Cloud. However, there’s not much of an upside in Hopkins facing either of those guys.
I can’t see a fight between Hopkins and Cloud or Shumenov drawing many fans in the U.S. Hopkins would be better off facing Cleverly in Wales in what would likely be in front of a huge audience. The same goes for Bute if he can get past Carl Froch next month in their fight on May 26th.
Hopkins messed up his chances for winning last night by not throwing enough punches against Dawson. Had Hopkins been a tad bit busier in the ring, he would have won a lot of the close rounds and walked away with the decision. Of course, there’s no telling whether Dawson would have responded by upping his own work rate to stay ahead of Hopkins. Dawson seemed to fight down to Hopkins’ level in terms of punch volume. That’s the way Dawson has always been. If he’s with a busy fighter like Tomasz Adamek, he’ll throw a lot of punches, but against fighters that doesn’t throw many punches, he mimics their output to where he’s just barely landing more.
Seth Mitchell Comes Through Mini-Crisis, Bombs Out Chazz Witherspoon In 3rd
By James Slater - Last night on the Dawson-Hopkins II card, unbeaten, hugely exciting U.S heavyweight hope Seth Mitchell came through the biggest crisis of his pro career to stop a game Chazz Witherspoon in the 3rd-round.
An ultra-exciting slugfest that saw both guys rocked, 29-year-old Mitchell finally won it in the 3rd, when two smashing rights slammed into 30-year-old Witherspoon’s jaw, prompting ref Randy Neumann to dive in and stop the fight. The official time was 2-minutes and 31 seconds. Mitchell is now 25-0-1(19). Witherspoon is now 30-3(22)..
An entertaining fight right from the first bell, it was the experienced Witherspoon who enjoyed success first. Looking aggressive and “up” for the fight in a big way, Witherspoon landed some big right hands to Mitchell’s largely untested jaw. Shocked, stunned and groggy, Mitchell’s big plans looked, temporarily at least, to be close to going out the window. Proving way too easy to hit, Mitchell survived and must have been glad to hear the bell.
Showing some reassuring grit and heart, not to mention toughness, “Mayhem” came back in the 2nd. Landing some hard head shots of his own, Mitchell also dug in some good body work. A good comeback from the warrior from Brandywine.
Then, a few seconds into the 3rd, Mitchell sent Witherspoon down with a nice left hook to the head. “Gentleman” Chazz got up but the ending was soon in coming. Having his man on rubbery legs and pounding Witherspoon all over the ring, Mitchell banged in two hard rights upstairs that sent the older man into the ropes. Referee Neumann dived in and began a count, before deciding to wave the fight off. There were no complaints from anyone.
First, the good news: Mitchell showed heart and a good chin in surviving and coming through that torrid opening round. Mitchell showed some classy punching in the 2nd and 3rd-rounds. And Mitchell kept his head when he was hurt and also when he had his man hurt.
The bad news: Mitchell’s defence was terrible last night, wide open as he was to right hand after right hand. Mitchell clearly needs at least five more fights before his team can even think about putting him in with one of the Klitschkos.
Mitchell remains a heavyweight to watch; still arguably THE best unbeaten American heavyweight, and however far he manages to get in his career, Mitchell will give fans a helluva lot of value for money. Mitchell is raw, but he is also raw excitement.
By James Slater - Last night on the Dawson-Hopkins II card, unbeaten, hugely exciting U.S heavyweight hope Seth Mitchell came through the biggest crisis of his pro career to stop a game Chazz Witherspoon in the 3rd-round.
An ultra-exciting slugfest that saw both guys rocked, 29-year-old Mitchell finally won it in the 3rd, when two smashing rights slammed into 30-year-old Witherspoon’s jaw, prompting ref Randy Neumann to dive in and stop the fight. The official time was 2-minutes and 31 seconds. Mitchell is now 25-0-1(19). Witherspoon is now 30-3(22)..
An entertaining fight right from the first bell, it was the experienced Witherspoon who enjoyed success first. Looking aggressive and “up” for the fight in a big way, Witherspoon landed some big right hands to Mitchell’s largely untested jaw. Shocked, stunned and groggy, Mitchell’s big plans looked, temporarily at least, to be close to going out the window. Proving way too easy to hit, Mitchell survived and must have been glad to hear the bell.
Showing some reassuring grit and heart, not to mention toughness, “Mayhem” came back in the 2nd. Landing some hard head shots of his own, Mitchell also dug in some good body work. A good comeback from the warrior from Brandywine.
Then, a few seconds into the 3rd, Mitchell sent Witherspoon down with a nice left hook to the head. “Gentleman” Chazz got up but the ending was soon in coming. Having his man on rubbery legs and pounding Witherspoon all over the ring, Mitchell banged in two hard rights upstairs that sent the older man into the ropes. Referee Neumann dived in and began a count, before deciding to wave the fight off. There were no complaints from anyone.
First, the good news: Mitchell showed heart and a good chin in surviving and coming through that torrid opening round. Mitchell showed some classy punching in the 2nd and 3rd-rounds. And Mitchell kept his head when he was hurt and also when he had his man hurt.
The bad news: Mitchell’s defence was terrible last night, wide open as he was to right hand after right hand. Mitchell clearly needs at least five more fights before his team can even think about putting him in with one of the Klitschkos.
Mitchell remains a heavyweight to watch; still arguably THE best unbeaten American heavyweight, and however far he manages to get in his career, Mitchell will give fans a helluva lot of value for money. Mitchell is raw, but he is also raw excitement.
Schaefer: Malignaggi will not fight Kell Brook in the UK
April 29th, 2012
By William Mackay: Just in case undefeated Kell Brook (27-0, 18 KO’s) and his promoter Eddie Hearn from Matchroom Sport were hoping that newly crowned WBA World welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (31-4, 7 KO’s) would be traveling to fight Brook in the UK, they can forget all about that happening because Malignaggi’s promoter Richard Schaefer told ESPN writer Dan Rafael that isn’t going to happen.
Rafael said this on his twitter today: “Richard Schaefer just told me there is zero chance Paulie goes to UK to fight Brook on his July 7 date. Not happening.”
Ouch! That’s got to hurt. Malignaggi would be perfect for the 25-year-old Brook, because he can’t punch and wouldn’t be much of a threat to stomping him like the better welterweights in the division like Andre Berto, Mike Jones and Victor Ortiz would.
I’m not even mentioning Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao because they will never face Brook because he’s too obscure and hasn’t done anything to make a name for himself despite eight years as a pro. Brook has been cutting his grass against 3rd tier, 2nd tier and fringe level 1st tier fodder. There’s been absolutely no risk taking with Brook no matter who his promoter is. He’s simply matched weak each time out rather than put in with someone that could make a name for him.
Malignaggi stopped WBA welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko in the 9th round on Sunday night in Ukraine to pick up Senchenko’s World Boxing Association title. It was a big surprise that Malignaggi got a stoppage because he’s not known for being a puncher. However, Senchenko’s left eye swelled almost completely shut and he was fighting with desperation in the 9th when he got hurt by a big right hand from Malignaggi. The rest is history. Malignaggi overwhelmed a hurt Senchenko with shots until the referee stepped in to halt the fight.
April 29th, 2012
By William Mackay: Just in case undefeated Kell Brook (27-0, 18 KO’s) and his promoter Eddie Hearn from Matchroom Sport were hoping that newly crowned WBA World welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi (31-4, 7 KO’s) would be traveling to fight Brook in the UK, they can forget all about that happening because Malignaggi’s promoter Richard Schaefer told ESPN writer Dan Rafael that isn’t going to happen.
Rafael said this on his twitter today: “Richard Schaefer just told me there is zero chance Paulie goes to UK to fight Brook on his July 7 date. Not happening.”
Ouch! That’s got to hurt. Malignaggi would be perfect for the 25-year-old Brook, because he can’t punch and wouldn’t be much of a threat to stomping him like the better welterweights in the division like Andre Berto, Mike Jones and Victor Ortiz would.
I’m not even mentioning Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao because they will never face Brook because he’s too obscure and hasn’t done anything to make a name for himself despite eight years as a pro. Brook has been cutting his grass against 3rd tier, 2nd tier and fringe level 1st tier fodder. There’s been absolutely no risk taking with Brook no matter who his promoter is. He’s simply matched weak each time out rather than put in with someone that could make a name for him.
Malignaggi stopped WBA welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko in the 9th round on Sunday night in Ukraine to pick up Senchenko’s World Boxing Association title. It was a big surprise that Malignaggi got a stoppage because he’s not known for being a puncher. However, Senchenko’s left eye swelled almost completely shut and he was fighting with desperation in the 9th when he got hurt by a big right hand from Malignaggi. The rest is history. Malignaggi overwhelmed a hurt Senchenko with shots until the referee stepped in to halt the fight.
Mayweather unhappy with 24/7; Thinks HBO should bring back old producers
April 29th, 2012
By Dallan O’ Donnell: In a status update on his Facebook page, unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. had a damning view on last night’s 24/7 episode saying he wasn’t pleased with this week’s episode.
He added that he and his team are providing “Bentley Weiner with exciting content which she (the producer) is not using.” He also stated that “we really needed the producers from Mayweather – Hatton 24/7 to come back to HBO to give the fans and viewers more excitement.” Mayweather as we know created the television series that is 24/7 and of course has been involved in many of the better episodes. I agree with Floyd, 24/7 hasn’t been great all series and if we look back it hasn’t really been too great in quite some time but the one thing I don’t agree with is blaming the poor producer.
She can only work with what she’s been given! So is it the producer or the stars of the show that are lacking and causing the show to be a little boring? We know what to expect from both Mayweather and Cotto. Mayweather is loud, brash and does a lot of trash talking whereas Cotto is quiet, going about his own business, not feeling the need to hype the fight anymore, which some viewers may find boring unless you are a fan of Cotto (which I happen to be) then most people will find him non-entertaining. So really what Floyd is asking for is impossible. He wants there to be excitement and entertainment in every episode of 24/7.
Mayweather wants record breaking viewing numbers. But he can’t. The reason? All the fighters before that have been featured on 24/7 like Marquez, Mosley, Ortiz now Cotto they all have one thing in common: They are not Ricky Hatton. Mayweather wants there to be excitement like there was in that series. But nobody carries themselves as well as Hatton. He was more entertaining to watch than Floyd!
There hasn’t been a fighter like Hatton with the same charisma since the Manchester brawler called it a day. So while Mayweather is complaining about lack of entertainment maybe he should consider giving Ricky a call to bump up these viewing numbers again. Who do you think is to blame? HBO? The show’s producer or both camps? Give your opinion in the comment section and I’ll attempt to reply to as many as possible or follow me on Twitter @dallan09 for a debate.
April 29th, 2012
By Dallan O’ Donnell: In a status update on his Facebook page, unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. had a damning view on last night’s 24/7 episode saying he wasn’t pleased with this week’s episode.
He added that he and his team are providing “Bentley Weiner with exciting content which she (the producer) is not using.” He also stated that “we really needed the producers from Mayweather – Hatton 24/7 to come back to HBO to give the fans and viewers more excitement.” Mayweather as we know created the television series that is 24/7 and of course has been involved in many of the better episodes. I agree with Floyd, 24/7 hasn’t been great all series and if we look back it hasn’t really been too great in quite some time but the one thing I don’t agree with is blaming the poor producer.
She can only work with what she’s been given! So is it the producer or the stars of the show that are lacking and causing the show to be a little boring? We know what to expect from both Mayweather and Cotto. Mayweather is loud, brash and does a lot of trash talking whereas Cotto is quiet, going about his own business, not feeling the need to hype the fight anymore, which some viewers may find boring unless you are a fan of Cotto (which I happen to be) then most people will find him non-entertaining. So really what Floyd is asking for is impossible. He wants there to be excitement and entertainment in every episode of 24/7.
Mayweather wants record breaking viewing numbers. But he can’t. The reason? All the fighters before that have been featured on 24/7 like Marquez, Mosley, Ortiz now Cotto they all have one thing in common: They are not Ricky Hatton. Mayweather wants there to be excitement like there was in that series. But nobody carries themselves as well as Hatton. He was more entertaining to watch than Floyd!
There hasn’t been a fighter like Hatton with the same charisma since the Manchester brawler called it a day. So while Mayweather is complaining about lack of entertainment maybe he should consider giving Ricky a call to bump up these viewing numbers again. Who do you think is to blame? HBO? The show’s producer or both camps? Give your opinion in the comment section and I’ll attempt to reply to as many as possible or follow me on Twitter @dallan09 for a debate.
Who Next For Seth Mitchell? De La Hoya Mentions Michael Grant’s Name
By James Slater: Fresh off his exciting, back-from-the-brink TKO win over Chazz Witherspoon, unbeaten U.S heavyweight Seth Mitchell and his team are making plans for the next step in the Brandywine warrior’s career. There is talk of “Mayhem” returning in September, and co-promoter Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy spoke briefly about who it might be the 29-year-old former football player goes in with next.
De La Hoya, as quoted by Ringtv.com, said the team will have to sit down and find the right opponent, yet the name of Michael Grant came out. As a continued learning fight, Grant, 48-4(36) would possibly prove to be an ideal opponent.
Grant may be getting on in years at age 39, yet he can still fight. It’s been a long, long time since anyone has stopped “Big” - Dominick Guinn way back in 2003 - and Grant has won his last two fights by stoppage. While before that, he proved competitive in dropping a decision to Poland’s Tomasz Adamek. Grant would also be the biggest (6'7" approx 250-pounds), most experienced guy of Mitchell’s pro career.
If Mitchell were to tighten up his defences, box smart and score a stoppage over Grant, he would make something of a statement. Grant can still bang (Tye Fields and, last time out, Frans Botha were both sent to the canvas in losing to the former world title challenger, and even if these two are far from top-10 material, Grant has at least been busy), and Mitchell was there to be hit by Witherspoon on Saturday. Mitchell, for all his defensive flaws, would be made a pretty big favourite to beat Grant if the fight got made, yet no-one could call it a bad match-up.
Mitchell, as we know, is a work in progress, and a fight with big Michael Grant would help him on his way towards what he hopes will be a world title shot of his own. Mitchell is still many miles away from being capable of rumbling with the Klitschkos, much less of beating one of them, yet he remains the best unbeaten American heavyweight out there.
De La Hoya and co will move him intelligently. A fight with Grant makes all the sense in the world. After that fight (assuming all goes well), Mitchell would then perhaps be ready for a top-10-ranked fighter.
By James Slater: Fresh off his exciting, back-from-the-brink TKO win over Chazz Witherspoon, unbeaten U.S heavyweight Seth Mitchell and his team are making plans for the next step in the Brandywine warrior’s career. There is talk of “Mayhem” returning in September, and co-promoter Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy spoke briefly about who it might be the 29-year-old former football player goes in with next.
De La Hoya, as quoted by Ringtv.com, said the team will have to sit down and find the right opponent, yet the name of Michael Grant came out. As a continued learning fight, Grant, 48-4(36) would possibly prove to be an ideal opponent.
Grant may be getting on in years at age 39, yet he can still fight. It’s been a long, long time since anyone has stopped “Big” - Dominick Guinn way back in 2003 - and Grant has won his last two fights by stoppage. While before that, he proved competitive in dropping a decision to Poland’s Tomasz Adamek. Grant would also be the biggest (6'7" approx 250-pounds), most experienced guy of Mitchell’s pro career.
If Mitchell were to tighten up his defences, box smart and score a stoppage over Grant, he would make something of a statement. Grant can still bang (Tye Fields and, last time out, Frans Botha were both sent to the canvas in losing to the former world title challenger, and even if these two are far from top-10 material, Grant has at least been busy), and Mitchell was there to be hit by Witherspoon on Saturday. Mitchell, for all his defensive flaws, would be made a pretty big favourite to beat Grant if the fight got made, yet no-one could call it a bad match-up.
Mitchell, as we know, is a work in progress, and a fight with big Michael Grant would help him on his way towards what he hopes will be a world title shot of his own. Mitchell is still many miles away from being capable of rumbling with the Klitschkos, much less of beating one of them, yet he remains the best unbeaten American heavyweight out there.
De La Hoya and co will move him intelligently. A fight with Grant makes all the sense in the world. After that fight (assuming all goes well), Mitchell would then perhaps be ready for a top-10-ranked fighter.
Mayweather: I’m too smart and experienced for Cotto
April 30th, 2012
By Dan Ambrose: Floyd Mayweather Jr. (42-0, 26 KO’s) sees his experience and ring intelligence being the keys to victory for him on Saturday night against WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (37-2, 30 KO’s) when Mayweather moves up in weight to try and capture the 154 pound title at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Mayweather said to the Miamiherald.com “I am too smart, experienced and determined to let anyone beat me.”‘
Mayweather is correct about him being very intelligent in the ring. He seems to know exactly what to do at any given moment in the ring, and that makes it really tough for his opponents.
Cotto seems to have a high ring IQ as well. However, where he has problems is with taking punishment and in the stamina department. Cotto swells up something fierce when he starts getting hit, and he’s often cut in his fights when facing quality opposition. But his stamina is one of his clear weaknesses, because Cotto isn’t the same fighter in the last four rounds of his fights as he is in the first part.
He tends to wear down late and is vulnerable. We saw that in his loss to Antonio Margarito, his close wins over Joshua Clottey and Shane Mosley, as well as his defeat against Manny Pacquiao. We also saw how Cotto was wearing down in his last fight against Margarito last December in the 9th. To Cotto’s great luck, the ringside doctor stepped in and stopped the fight after the 9th because of Margarito’s swollen shut right eye. Had the fight been allowed to continue for one or two more rounds, we likely wouldn’t be talking about the Mayweather-Cotto fight for Saturday.
More than likely, Mayweather will clown Cotto by boxing circles around him and picking him apart with shots while Cotto misses again and again. This fight has mismatch written all over it. Cotto hasn’t fought anyone good in three years, and now he’s going into the fight with a relatively new trainer. This is not good for Cotto.
April 30th, 2012
By Dan Ambrose: Floyd Mayweather Jr. (42-0, 26 KO’s) sees his experience and ring intelligence being the keys to victory for him on Saturday night against WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (37-2, 30 KO’s) when Mayweather moves up in weight to try and capture the 154 pound title at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Mayweather said to the Miamiherald.com “I am too smart, experienced and determined to let anyone beat me.”‘
Mayweather is correct about him being very intelligent in the ring. He seems to know exactly what to do at any given moment in the ring, and that makes it really tough for his opponents.
Cotto seems to have a high ring IQ as well. However, where he has problems is with taking punishment and in the stamina department. Cotto swells up something fierce when he starts getting hit, and he’s often cut in his fights when facing quality opposition. But his stamina is one of his clear weaknesses, because Cotto isn’t the same fighter in the last four rounds of his fights as he is in the first part.
He tends to wear down late and is vulnerable. We saw that in his loss to Antonio Margarito, his close wins over Joshua Clottey and Shane Mosley, as well as his defeat against Manny Pacquiao. We also saw how Cotto was wearing down in his last fight against Margarito last December in the 9th. To Cotto’s great luck, the ringside doctor stepped in and stopped the fight after the 9th because of Margarito’s swollen shut right eye. Had the fight been allowed to continue for one or two more rounds, we likely wouldn’t be talking about the Mayweather-Cotto fight for Saturday.
More than likely, Mayweather will clown Cotto by boxing circles around him and picking him apart with shots while Cotto misses again and again. This fight has mismatch written all over it. Cotto hasn’t fought anyone good in three years, and now he’s going into the fight with a relatively new trainer. This is not good for Cotto.
Chad Dawson: Is He Worthy Of Being In The Top-10 Pound-For-Pound?
By James Slater: Having finally managed to pound out a clear decision win over one time bitter rival, now respected fellow warrior Bernard Hopkins - a fighter it is almost impossible to look good against - “Bad” Chad Dawson is at the top of the light-heavyweight tree.
The gifted southpaw is the Ring Magazine and WBC 175-pound king and the 29-year-old with the 31-1(17) record is enjoying his second reign as champ. The one loss on Dawson’s record - an August 2010 11th-round TD loss to former champ Jean Pascal - is the sole blemish on Dawson’s record, yet in the opinion of a number of people, that loss has to be avenged before Chad can be looked at as a Pound-for-Pound star; or even as the best light-heavyweight out there.
Dawson, though, is worthy of being placed in some P-4-P top-10’s, and with big fights planned against the likes of Andre Ward, Dawson could become a real star if he can keep winning. Pascal, if he can defeat IBF champ Tavoris Cloud (this fight being near done for the summer), would make a great rematch opponent for Dawson, but right now I think Dawson is worthy of a place in the top-10 P-4-P.
Dawson seems to have grown mentally stronger since the Pascal defeat, where he was bullied on occasion, and the win over Hopkins has to have earned “Bad” Chad a lot of respect - after all, Pascal was twice beaten by B-Hop (only once officially, yet we all know the Dec. 2010 draw between the two came about only because of poor scoring on the part of two of the judges; scoring almost as bad as that which we saw this past Saturday, when one official somehow scored Dawson-Hopkins II a draw!).
Dawson, right now, deserves to be ranked as the #1 at light-heavyweight, and until anyone can come along and knock him off the top spot, that is where he will sit. But where does Dawson deserve to be placed P-4-P-wise?
1: Floyd Mayweather Junior
2: Manny Pacquiao
3: Sergio Gabriel Martinez
4: Nonito Donaire
5: Andre Ward
6: Wladimir Klitschko
7: Juan Manuel Marquez
8: Timothy Bradley
9: Chad Dawson
10: Vitali Klitschko
By James Slater: Having finally managed to pound out a clear decision win over one time bitter rival, now respected fellow warrior Bernard Hopkins - a fighter it is almost impossible to look good against - “Bad” Chad Dawson is at the top of the light-heavyweight tree.
The gifted southpaw is the Ring Magazine and WBC 175-pound king and the 29-year-old with the 31-1(17) record is enjoying his second reign as champ. The one loss on Dawson’s record - an August 2010 11th-round TD loss to former champ Jean Pascal - is the sole blemish on Dawson’s record, yet in the opinion of a number of people, that loss has to be avenged before Chad can be looked at as a Pound-for-Pound star; or even as the best light-heavyweight out there.
Dawson, though, is worthy of being placed in some P-4-P top-10’s, and with big fights planned against the likes of Andre Ward, Dawson could become a real star if he can keep winning. Pascal, if he can defeat IBF champ Tavoris Cloud (this fight being near done for the summer), would make a great rematch opponent for Dawson, but right now I think Dawson is worthy of a place in the top-10 P-4-P.
Dawson seems to have grown mentally stronger since the Pascal defeat, where he was bullied on occasion, and the win over Hopkins has to have earned “Bad” Chad a lot of respect - after all, Pascal was twice beaten by B-Hop (only once officially, yet we all know the Dec. 2010 draw between the two came about only because of poor scoring on the part of two of the judges; scoring almost as bad as that which we saw this past Saturday, when one official somehow scored Dawson-Hopkins II a draw!).
Dawson, right now, deserves to be ranked as the #1 at light-heavyweight, and until anyone can come along and knock him off the top spot, that is where he will sit. But where does Dawson deserve to be placed P-4-P-wise?
1: Floyd Mayweather Junior
2: Manny Pacquiao
3: Sergio Gabriel Martinez
4: Nonito Donaire
5: Andre Ward
6: Wladimir Klitschko
7: Juan Manuel Marquez
8: Timothy Bradley
9: Chad Dawson
10: Vitali Klitschko
