"We're right on schedule. My sparring partners are pushing man, real strong, and they holding up. I'm ready to take on the Englishman. It's going to be great man. It's going to be a great testimony to health awareness; if you take care of yourself, you can do whatever you want to do for as long as you want to do it," stated light heavyweight king Bernard Hopkins as he talked about his preparations for his April 19th clash with super middleweight champion Joe Calzaghe. You don't want to miss what else he had to say just weeks away from his highly-anticipated matchup as he reflects on his own career and guarantee's that he'll give Calzaghe his first defeat, like he did to Felix Trinidad, Glen Johnson and Joe Lipsey.
PC: How's everything going with you X?
BH: Training hard man. I just got out of the gym about an hour ago. I'm just settling down right now.
PC: Yeah, you sound like you've had a long one man?
BH: Yeah, everything is good though. I'm just getting in and watching the news real quick.
PC: How's training going out there in California?
BH: Everything is good. We're working on our 5th week and we'll be out of here on the 14th, but everything else is good man. We're right on schedule. My sparring partners are pushing man, real strong, and they holding up. I'm ready to take on the Englishman. It's going to be great man. It's going to be a great testimony to health awareness; if you take care of yourself, you can do whatever you want to do for as long as you want to do it. I'm a testimony to that even today. It goes for everybody, even if you don't have the genes and genetics. I'm one of the last dinosaurs to pull it off man.
PC: You came around in the James Toney and Roy Jones era and you stay in tip-toe shape while being on top of your game still. Do you think that's a testament to strictly your work ethic?
BH: I think it has a lot to do with the time I got to really blossom in my career. Those that have followed me since the 90's and now into the 2000's know that things didn't come on a silver platter for Bernard Hopkins. I rumbled through the system just like I rumble my opponents in the ring. Sometimes it's a price you pay for that and one of them was not getting the opportunities that other people got or would have gotten if they just played the game. I don't have no regrets and the payoff was in the end when I finally got the prestige, respect and all of the other blessings that come with that. I tell people that they put me in a position without knowing they were helping me.
PC: They didn't even know it. I follow you.
BH: They didn't even know it. As long as I didn't give up and stayed with the fate of never giving up, I think at the end of the day, that was part of this longevity. I think people could see what I mean by that and take one of those "hmm" type of minutes. They will see that I make sense when I say that because even the ones that thought they were hurting me, in the long run thinking the delays and distractions would be my ultimate downfall, I prevailed and time don't stop for nobody. Age became another age, and then another year and then another year and I still maintained my sanity, my health and I was able to continue doing what I was doing. I kept winning and that's important because without winning, you have no life in boxing. I basically waited everybody out. People lost, people retired and some got beat. I went through Trinidad, Oscar, Antwun Echols, Robert Allen, middleweight tournament in 2001, Jermain Taylor, and even that situation helped me more than it hurt me. You can tell that just by looking where my career is at and where his career is at. Politically and non-politically, whether what I think happened or didn't happen, history will be one way or the other.
That's the way I am man. I tell people that I ain't getting caught up in it's all just me; it's certain things that happen for me to be in the position that I am in today and even going into this April 19th fight, which is another major challenge and another major event where I'm at my best when I'm the underdog and I'm not supposed to win. It reminds me of the Tarver situation, it reminds me of the Tito situation and really, it reminds me of the Oscar situation based on if he goes 12 rounds and my partner is the Golden Boy now, but nobody is going to give me a close decision in anything in boxing (laughing). So here we go man (taking a deep breathe). I take that breathe of happy relief that here we go again. I get the chance to be motivated again by this type of scenario. Like I said, this guy has 21 defenses in the super middleweight division, whether they were 90% in Europe; which I think is going to play a major part in this fight here because he's not going to be in Wales. Wales might be here as far as the crowd, but it's a lot different man; trust me. I went to Quito, Ecuador in 1995 and fought an Ecuadorian named Segundo Mercado, you remember that?
PC: Yeah, I have both fights on DVD.
BH: Let me tell you something, I know how it is to go fight somebody on their homeland. I got knocked down twice and got up and got a draw so that tells you who really won, but I took the draw and got out of there. I made him pay for it 5 months later in the rematch. I knocked him out in the 5th I believe. What I'm saying is Joe is not Segundo Mercado, he's not Antonio Tarver, but I say he's this and he's that because I have to have that thought to stay focused and stay on that track because I know when I get in that ring, anything can happen. If you're not prepared, the best fighter could lose to the worst fighter in the world if he's not mentally prepared. If he's not mentally and physically prepared for a fight, no matter what status and what people think, the person that should win and supposed to win don't always be the one that wins. You have to always come in there with, they say you're A game, no, you have to always come in there with you're A+ game. You always gotta have plus something else.
PC: X, you were able to take away Joe Lipsey's 0, Glenn Johnson's 0 and Felix Trinidad's 0Â…
BH: He went all the way back. See, they don't even talk about that on TV. They don't mention Glen Johnson and see, that's how I know, and this aint blowing smoke man, and I don't even know who you are, but you've done your homework. Let me tell you something man, this is going to answer the question that I'm going to say. When's the last time you ever heard HBO or anybody when they boosting up either Roy Jones, and again, I'm not taking away anything from any of these fighters, but they never mention Bernard Hopkins knocking out Glen Johnson when he was 30 something and 0.
PC: YEAH, 32-0.
BH: I won every round and knocked him out in the 11th and the referee stopped it. I boxed him and I guarantee you, when you look at these countdowns for Bernard Hopkins and Joe Calzaghe this week coming up, I guarantee when you call me back on this phone before April 19th, you're going to say, "Bernard they didn't even show flashbacks of the Glen Johnson fight." It's missing! I mean, you got it and I got it, but here's when Glen Johnson was undefeated and they don't even mention that. It wasn't a Roy Jones situation in '93 when we both were young. Johnson was 32-0. They don't even mention anything about Glen Johnson man. He was 32-0 and nobody would fight him; it was a tough fight and it took me 11 rounds to get him, but I like erasing people's 0's man. I guarantee you, when you watch that countdown and they show pictures of my previous fights, they never mention Glen Johnson. And why should they mention Glen Johnson? Because this guy has destroyed 2 major players in boxing in the last 10-15 years. He knocked Roy senseless, he split with Tarver and if he beats Chad Dawson, which he has a good chance, and I like ChadÂ…Chad is the light heavyweight future; trust me, I like the guy man. Glen Johnson is a veteran and he's got a punch and I know that Chad has been on the...Chad ain't got the best whiskers in the world. Don't be surprised if the "Road Warrior", because that's the kind of fighter he is he's a spoiler man and Glen ain't going to quit. Chad, to me, is what I consider the guy I passed the torch to the baton in the light heavyweight division because I'll never see middleweight again in my life. The thing is, guys like that man, the Joe Lipsey's, "The Hammer" southpaw, they don't mention that to ya'll. They not going to mention that to ya'll and he stopped boxing after that fight. Glen will tell you he lost 7 or 8 fights after he fought me until he got back on track. He was helping me out in Miami, and I'm not degrading him or anything like that, but I was helping him out. He was working in the construction business and he was one of my main sparring partners. He'll tell you that and when he got back on track, he started knocking joker's heads off man. They start calling him for opponents, "Oh, he got lucky this time." Call him for another opponent, he got lucky again and next thing you know, he was in their for a title shot.
I want them to sleep on me, but I know they don't sleep on me totally, but behind closed doors, they hoping this is the time and that's what keeps me motivated 5:30 in the morning working with Mackie Shilstone, Freddie Roach, Naazim Richardson and John David Jackson. Some people call them the "Dream Team" and stuff like that; bottom line is I take something from all of these guys man. They say that I have all of these fantastic people and that I don't need all these people, but what they should really say is, "He's coming to win this fight." Could you imagine if I go to a business advisor and I get 10 Bill Gates giving me information (laughing)? That's being a smart guy, not Bernard Hopkins, but somebody else. I'm going to go hire 10 Bill Gates personalities that have a reputation of being a billionaire and you're going to look at me and say I'm making a false move? I'm adding all of these people, so trust me they scared to death. It's the opposite of that. They're scared to death. They know that this joker is coming to win this fight; he put's a lot of people out of business. I messed up Roy Jones and Felix Trinidad when I beat Trinidad in 2001. I messed up Joe Calzaghe fighting Winky Wright and I took away the Tarver fight when everybody thought he was going to add another legend killer to his resume. He didn't get to fight Joe because Joe was leaving Showtime and coming where the big money was at to fight at HBO. Like I tell everybody, I know the politics behind it and the only reason Joe Calzaghe is fighting Bernard Hopkins is because he signed a couple of fight deals with HBO and on his 3rd fight in his contract, he had to fight in the U.S.A. I just so happened to be door #3 because I eliminated 2 of his future opponents. Jermain got beat by Pavlik twice and they had a rematch clause so he couldn't negotiate with that fight, who's left man?
PC: Had to come to X huh?
BH: Exactly! Had to come to X and when I sat them down, I told them, "Ya'll ain't doing me a favor." If the shoe was on the other foot, I would've never had this fight unless I went to Wales; unless I would've went to Wales dog, that's the only reason I got this fight contractually. He had to fight his 3rd fight in the United States unless I was willing to wave that and I wasn't and HBO wasn't because that's they deal, not mine. Why do you think Joe got on TV after he beat Kessler and said, "I want to fight Bernard Hopkins?" Because the next time, I'm retired, but if ya'll make it right for me, I'll get out of the rocking chair and that's where we're at man.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: CHECK BACK LATER FOR PART 2 OF THIS INTERVIEW]
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]