"If you can find somebody that can neutralize what you're doing, you can't do it no more," state Brother Naazim Richardson, longtime trainer of Bernard Hopkins, as he talked about the upcoming clash with Joe Calzaghe. Check out what he had to say about their gameplan to neutralize his punch outpoint and his thoughts on Calzaghe, Jermain Taylor, Kelly Pavlik, Larry Merchant and much more.
PC: Brother Naazim, you'll be in Bernard's corner as well, right?
NR: Oh yeah! I'll be working his corner. Me, Freddie Roach and John David Jackson.
PC: The big question everyone is asking is how's the old man going to pull another trick out of the hat and beat the "Punching Machine?"
NR: Paul Williams throws 100 punches a round and he's 6-feet tall. He didn't throw 100 punches a round, did he? He didn't throw 100 punches a round against Quintana. It's like your moms tell you on the block, "That Bobby is a bad boy and he punches all of the kid's in the face." Then, all of a sudden, the wrong fucking kid comes up the block and Bobby ain't punching him in the face. I remember they had a kid from our way. They used to call him "Boss Hog". He was a big bald-headed, light-skinned kid and they called him Boss Hog. Boss Hog got out there and got to showing his ass and everything and he ended up jumping on Rock. Rock 'n dem couldn't be no more than about 10 [years old] and Rock tore into Boss Hog's ass. He was twice Rock's size. Boss Hog turned the corner running man and Rock 'n dem was on his ass. The old lady was on the block laughing talking about how they were chasing him. I told Rock they better watch themselves because they keep talking about Boss Hog and he's going to get tired of that shit. They messed with that boy until he was a teenager. They'd say, "When that lil boxing boy chased your ass up the street, you wasn't a gangster then." That's all it took was the right one. If you can find somebody that can neutralize what you're doing, you can't do it no more.
Mike Tyson was hitting guys with that liver shot and then throwing that uppercut and knocking their dome off, but when he fought Buster Douglass, he wasn't doing that shit because Buster Douglas neutralized it and he couldn't do that shit.
PC: So the plan is to definitely neutralize that output?
NR: Yeah. You can't let Calzaghe throw 100 punches a round man. This motherfucker will be stealing the round and nothing's happening in the round. He'll be jumping around, slipping and sliding
and they trying to say Bernard is a racist, but come on man, let's keep it real. America is America. They wouldn't be hoopin' and hollerin' about Kelly Pavlik if he wasn't a good ol' boy from down there in the "Steel Country". That's why Jermain's ass panicked because he could feel it. Jermain knew he didn't have no business getting the job. They gave him the belts and he didn't have no business with them and then it's like they do every time they go on a job site
"We want you to train this young boy from Ohio on the machines. We got a good ol' boy named Pavlik, we want you to train him on the machines." You could see they about to bump your ass (laughing). You're training him to work you right out of a job. They're going to downsize your ass right on out of the door. Jermain could feel it. "They didn't make all of this noise when I fought Bernard or Winky Wright. Why they making all of this noise for this kid Pavlik?" I know why, he about to take your job. The only thing that happened was Pavlik ended up doing it better than they even anticipated. All Pavlik had to do was stay in the fight and they would've got him. They saw they didn't have to take that one. Taylor gave it up. I think Taylor's capable of beating the kid and that's the mistake that he made. He showed he was capable of beating him. He's not a real cerebral dude. Bernard was going with Taylor.
PC: I saw that. Taylor seems to have stamina problems to me and I think a lot of it is the wasted motion he does in the ring. He taps his forehead with his gloves and shit like that takes energy.
NR: Yeah, he does do a lot of nonsense in there that's wasted motion. If you're already nervous and then you're doing all of that movement, that takes it out of you and he's real tense in the ring. He never relaxes. Sometimes these commentators make you think you're watching a different fight. Kelly Pavlik is my young bull. I've known Kelly since he was about 10 years old, but they want to jump up and down and hoop and holla like he's doing something magnificent. They say things like, "This young kid from Youngstown, Ohio could save boxing." How in the hell is this kid going to save boxing with a jab, jab and a right hand? If you don't turn the sound down man, they'll make you try and watch another fight. They'll say he threw a right hand and then came back with a jab and I'm like, "that jab didn't land, why are they even talking about it." Larry Merchant got that disdain for X, but Larry respects the fact that X has that consistency. He's going to put something on Bernard's ass for that Calzaghe fight. This is the one they're hoping for man. If they can get Calzaghe to do all of that slapping and jumping around, they'll hoop and holla about everything he do. (In his best Jim Lampley voice) "Larry, what can Bernard do to neutralize this onslaught from Calzaghe?"
Bernard knows he's going to have to step up his game because being an older fighter and fighting a young, active dude
the most active dude
Calzaghe think he can bait Bernard in and Enzo 'n dem putting that dumb shit in his head. His father lost some cool points with me with one of the statements he made. He said he didn't feel Bernard was a legendary fighter because all he does is run and hold. He said if Bernard stands there and fights like a world champion, then maybe we'll get a legendary fight, but other than that, I haven't seen anything legendary out of Bernard Hopkins. You have to respect a man for his gifts man. This man has been fighting in his backyard for damn near his whole career. Every guy that fought your guy, we couldn't praise them until they passed the test and your guy was the test so that mean you haven't fought anybody that has been tested yet. I still give Calzaghe his respect, even though he tried to belittle Bernard. Come on man. This dude just needs something to say. I know we're on opposite sides, but I look across the room and I can't deny the fact that your guy isn't good at what he do. That would make me uncomfortable if I was a fighter when I see my trainer saying things like that. You get trainers that do that. They say, "This guy is nothing. We're going to knock him out." This motherfucker done won so many fights in a row, what you mean he ain't nothing? I don't ever take away a fighter's attributes man. Even if I was one of them haters that didn't give a fighter their credit, I would give it to Calzaghe and I'll tell you why. I believe that's the way to beat him. I think that's the way he's been winning his fights because people look at him as a little white boy that can box a little bit and if you rough him up, he'll fall apart. I don't believe that. I believe he's scrappy. He's one of them kid's if you whoop his ass today in the schoolyard, he'll be there tomorrow. The first day you show up and you ain't ready to whoop somebody's ass, you gonna get embarrassed. Calzaghe going to go home and wipe the blood off of his nose and he'll be back; he's a scrappy lil' dude.
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