The Boxing Scene

Bernard Hopkins: History in the Making

Bernard Hopkins and I have had our differences over the years (as referenced in some of my earlier books). So I was pleased and honored that he invited me into his dressing room for the hours before Hopkins–Wright. Bernard Hopkins: History in the Making E gos are big in boxing and few people in the sweet science have a bigger ego than Bernard Hopkins. The fighter himself says, “I admit that your ears can get tired listening to Bernard Hopkins.” Hopkins is a writer’s fighter. He’s quotable and charismatic with marvelous ring skills to match his persona. He’s also an exceedingly complex man with personal potential that has yet to be fully tapped. He doesn’t like being wrong, and rarely admits it when he is. He can be smart and foolish, diplomatic and brusque, funny and mean, charming and cruel. At times, he’s wise. In Bernard’s world, relationships are often tenuous. Allies like longtime trainer Bouie Fisher and promoter Lou DiBella (who was instrumental in Bernard’s rise to stardom) are cast aside. Some people marvel at how Hopkins makes pacts with the devil (e.g., Don King and Bob Arum), breaks them, and comes out ahead. DiBella voices a different view and queries, “How can Bernard Hopkins make a pact with the devil ? He is the devil.” But in the next sentence, the promoter acknowledes, “There are a lot of very appealing things about Bernard as a person. That’s why, when he turned on me and revealed that other side of his character, it hurt me so much.” Love him or hate him (and there’s reason for both), Hopkins deserves respect for what he has accomplished. There have been many controversies in his life, some of them ugly; but he has kept his name free of scandal . When he was released from prison at age twenty-three, he had meager vocational skills and little margin for error, in the ring or out of it. Then he lost his first pro fight. “That was a gut-shot,” Bernard says. “I had to make it in boxing to get to where I wanted to go in life. There was no plan B. But I never begged, I never pleaded, I never lay down. And it all worked out for me.” Boxing is about who executes best in the fractions of a second when an opening is there. The outcome of a fight is determined by which fighter does what has to be done in those fleeting slivers of time. Forget about the costume mask and executioner’s hood that Hopkins often wears to the ring. He executes , that’s the key. “Bernard knows the art of boxing,” says Freddie Roach, who stepped in to train Hopkins when Naazim Richardson suffered a stroke on March 29 of this year. “He studies it; he knows this game well. He thinks. He sets things up. He doesn’t make mistakes. You should watch him shadowbox. His feet are always under him; his balance is perfect; his chin is always down. He’s not your usual fighter, that’s for sure.” “There are times when I’ve been in Bernard’s corner during a fight,” says Richardson. “I’ve seen something and said to myself, ‘When Bernard gets back to the corner, I want to tell him this.’ And before the round ends, he’s made that adjustment.” But the key to Hopkins’s success is his work ethic. A lot of fighters maintain discipline while they’re on the way up. Some keep it for a few years after they become a champion. What makes Bernard special is that he has kept his discipline for almost twenty years. “Bernard gives more of himself than any fighter I’ve ever known,” says Richardson. “Most fighters, if they tried to do what Bernard does, they’d break. There are very few human beings who can give what Bernard gives, mentally or physically. He’s extreme in a lot of what he does. Sometimes you have to tell him to back off and slow down. There are times when something isn’t working right and he’ll just work it harder instead of trying a different approach. But I’ve never seen a fighter get up mentally fight after fight like Bernard does. Each time he steps in the ring, it’s like his first championship fight. Boxing is as hard as everyone thinks it is, harder; and...