Doug Fischer
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 Return of the Renegade
By Doug Fischer (March 25, 2003)
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Has it really been more than a year since fight fans have seen Bernard Hopkins fight? Has it really been 17 months since his career-defining fight versus Felix Trinidad? So much has happened since then, so little of it good. At age 38, is the undisputed middleweight champion still the tireless maverick who is just as comfortable holding court with 20 reporters as he is beating down a mandatory contender like the unknown Morrade Hakkar, who he will fight this Saturday at the Spectrum in Philadelphia?
If an international conference call that took place with Hopkins last Thursday is any indication, the answer is a resounding yes. Despite splitting with his long-time trainer Bouie Fisher and losing a not-so-civil court case to his former advisor Lou DiBella -- or maybe IN spite of those relationship breakdowns -- Hopkins has not lost a drop of the piss and vinegar that has made him boxing's most outspoken angry man and one the game's most feared competitors it the ring.
Say what you will about how The Executioner's handled his career and his business relationships since downing Trinidad, the man is still the unified champion at 160 pounds, he still holds the record for title defenses in the middleweight division, he is still the best interview in the game, and, here's the kicker, he is still a master at the brutal craft of boxing.
So what, he says, if he has enemies in high places? So what if he has become the subject of negative criticism of many internet and newspaper writers, press that he believes are influenced by his "adversaries"? So what, Hopkins says, if he's not liked by everyone, especially promoters, network executives and members of the press?
"I've learned one thing in all these years," Hopkins told the media who dialed into the conference call last Thursday. "Damned if you do, damned if you don't. You can never satisfy people, totally. That's life. If you can deal with that you can make it in life. I can't please everybody, so why try? I like being the renegade."
Baseball has Barry Bonds. Basketball has Allen Iverson. Football has Ray Lewis. Boxing has Bernard Hopkins. All of these world-class athletes have had their run-ins with the media, but at the end of the day, they are among the elite of what they do. And when it comes to kicking ass -- in the ring or during an interview -- "X gonna give it you", as rapper DMX growls in his latest song.
"I was kickin' ass when I was 36 and 37 and I'm still kickin' ass at 38," Hopkins, 41-2-1 (30), barked from his training camp outside of Miami during a typical non-stop rant that lasted for nearly an hour. "I'll still be kicking ass at 39 and 40. I'm still kicking ass and I'm having fun doing it, but I also have seriousness in my heart. Because I want to be able to live well and have money for when I can no longer kick ass."
Hopkins, a complex man of contradictions, is many things — a champion, an ex-con, an activist for his fellow fighters, a tireless self-promoter, a teacher, a preacher, a con man, a man of God, a paranoid recluse, a man of the people, a control freak, a workaholic — but he's also a realist. He knows at some point he will get too old to kick ass in the ring.
"We all against the clock," he said. "Not just me, but all fighters. Oscar De La Hoya, Fernando Vargas and Shane Mosley are getting older, too. And without meaning to, my adversaries have helped me out. I haven't taken a punch since last February because I've been in court. The industry has preserved Bernard Hopkins!"
Hopkins used an analogy on his longevity that he's brought up before, "I'm like that old jar of peaches that your grandma sealed in a jar and put in the basement," he said. "Those peaches have been down there for so many years, but when you take them out they're sweeter than they were before."
Hopkins reckons that there are not many world-class fighters around his weight class, especially just below it, who have a sweet tooth for him.
"Oscar De La Hoya, Ricardo Mayorga, Sugar Shane Mosley -- we only six pounds away from each other -- but no one is bangin' the drums for those super fights," Hopkins said. "I'm always lookin' for a super fight, but I'm not going to beg for it. I have all three belts, all three chickens. If you have all the chickens, you don't have to go lookin' for the wolves."
But the fact of the matter is that Hopkins will have to bang his own drums if he hopes to lure any cub wolves from under the middleweight division into the ring with him.
Say what you want about his take on why he was not able to sign multi-fight deals with both HBO or Showtime. And his take on what happened to lead to his falling out with DiBella and Fisher can certainly be questioned, but his claim that the "young turks," as he calls them, don't want to face him is hard to debate.
Regardless of what De La Hoya tells the media, his promoter Bob Arum will not let the Golden Boy within 12 feet of Hopkins if he can help it. The fierce pride of Vargas may prompt him to challenge Hopkins, but his promoters Main Events have other ideas. Jack Mosley has gone on record saying that Hopkins is just too damn big for his son to fight. Knowing what Hopkins did to his "shinning star" Trinidad, Don King will not likely allow the renegade of his promotional stable ruin his latest Latino star, the wild-swinging Mayorga.
And Winky Wright, one title holder who is as desperate for a big fight as Hopkins, is holding out of De La Hoya, knowing full well that he looks like an easier mark to the Golden Boy's people than the middleweight king. In fact, Mosley, Vargas, Wright and perhaps even Mayorga, are all looking forward to matches with De La Hoya in the near future. That leaves Wright's promoter Roy Jones as the only super fight option for Hopkins, but the newly crowned WBA heavyweight titlist has bigger fish to fry fresh off his dominating points win over John Ruiz.
Hopkins, as can be expected, wasn't all that impressed with Jones' victory, stating that it means more to beat a smaller man with talent -- "the still great Trinidad," he said -- than a "big man without talent".
"I've beat up a lot of 200-, 210-pound men in my days on the street," Hopkins told Tim Smith of the New York Daily News. "Know why? They couldn't fight! Roy fought a big man, but not a talented man. Let him have his fun in the sun until the sun run out. Bernard Hopkins will still be there for Roy or whoever."
Don't hold your breath for Jones-Hopkins II, both men seem to get more stubborn as the years roll on.
"Seein' how Jones blew up to heavyweight and looked like the bigger man against Ruiz makes me glad that I didn't take accept his 60-40 split," Hopkins said. "He had the size advantage in that fight and he tried to hide it. Now I know I'd have to get parity, or paid more because of that."
And what about his size advantage over the junior middleweights and welterweights that he called out during the conference call?
"Look at the money De La Hoya's making fighting just anybody," Hopkins said. "Do you know how much money he would make fighting the undisputed middleweight champion of the world!? We only six pounds apart. I would come down to 156 pounds and put MY BELTS on the line. For Mayorga, I could come down to 156 or 154 pounds. There are so many super fights underneath me that can be done, just put a catchweight between their weight and mine. I would go down 154 pounds and fight Winky Wright for my titles or we can fight for his title and then I can fight De La Hoya in a (154-pound) unification. It's Bernard Hopkins, who's the bounty hunter.
"I never ducked a tough fight. I fought Echols twice, Allen twice, I went to another country to fight for my world title, I went to Ecuador. Roy Jones won't even go to Germany to fight a guy that he can beat easily.
"But they won't talk about Oscar and Hopkins, 'cause they're not sure he can beat me — yet — maybe when I'm 50."
Hopkins will at least be around until he's 40. He says his goal is to make 20 defenses of his title.
"No one has done that in the middleweight division," he said. "Joe Louis did it in the heavyweight division, but no one has done it in the middleweight divisions. That will cement my legacy."
But before he can attain that goal or get his wish for a super fight versus the likes of De La Hoya or Vargas, he must beat the man who will stand in front of him on Saturday.
Hakkar, 29-3 (18), the 31-year-old European champ from France is the WBC's no. 1 contender. The only recognizable name on Hakkar's record is Mamadou Thiam (a six-round decision victory back in '94). Thiam was thrashed by Trinidad in three rounds in 2000 and was stopped by the very ordinary Santiago Samaniego last year.
But Hopkins says he will not overlook the unheralded Frenchman.
"Of course I've been studying him, I'm an old veteran," he said. "Nothing has changed. I'm gonna know my adversary, my enemy, just like what the US is doing now with Iraq. I've had tapes on Hakkar for years, and he's not as bad as people pretend him to be.
"I'm not sleeping on this guy. If I did that, I'd be just like Wladimir Klitschko against Corrie Sanders. This has been a hell of year for guys with TV contracts. Klitschko though he had a nice contract with HBO. Now he's not too sure. Vernon Forrest thought he had a multi-fight deal with HBO, then he got beat in his first fight of the contract. All of this makes me glad that I never signed with HBO or Showtime. It's best for me to stay where I'm at, a free agent and a renegade."
Hopkins burst out into a loud cackle at the thought.
He doesn't need the networks, he says. He's happy to be making the money he's making fighting nobodies like Hakkar and he's proud to be recognized in his hometown as well as fight clubs and arenas around the country.
"I sacrificed a couple hundred thousand dollars to be in Philadelphia," he said. "I chose to do it there based on people saying that it's not a fight town like it used to be in the '70s and the '80s. The Spectrum, where we are fighting, was very popular back in the day and I want to be the one to bring that flavor back.
"Watch and you will see the respect they show me, the fans, when we sell the Spectrum out, when they turn people away at the door because of the fire code. I'm not the industry champion, I'm the people's champion and they, my adversaries, can't change that.
"I was at a De La Hoya-promoted show here in Miami a few weeks ago, I paid my own way in for a front row seat because if I announced to them that I'd be there, they may not have let me in the front door, but I got standing ovations from a crowd that was 99-percent Latino. I got a standing ovation in a club where Trinidad and De La Hoya were present. Everywhere I go I get standing ovations, but you don't read about that. The same thing happened when I was at the Byrd-Holyfield fight in Atlantic City. When other fighters names were announced, there was a moderate applause. But they stood up when they heard my name. But if you read certain websites and certain newspapers, who are chronies for my adversaries, I have no fan base."
The negative press is only fuel for Executioner's inner fire. Hopkins reads everything written on him on the internet, in the papers and in magazines. Good or bad, it's only added motivation for him to ply his craft.
"Boxing is my therapy," he said. "You'll never see a tattoo on my face. I love the attention -- negative or positive -- just spell my name right. Morrade Hakkar, unfortunately, is going to have to take the brunt of my frustration that has built up for over a year. Who else am I gonna take my frustrations out on?"
The media? No, he says. He is more than just a big mouth.
"My deeds and my actions, not my mouth, will stipulate my place in history," Hopkins said. "I'm the undisputed middleweight champ at 38, the first since Marvin Hagler. I've made 15 defenses of the title, more than Hagler, I broke Carlos Monzon's record. I've been undefeated since 1993. And on top of that, I spoke my mind. I wasn't afraid to speak out about what was wrong with the sport in front of congress and [Senator John] McCain back when I was a nobody, back when I only had one belt.
"I'm man like Bill Russell, Satchel Paige or Jim Brown."
So forget about comparisons to Iverson, Bonds and Lewis.
Hopkins is renegade, but he's also an American original.
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